A/HRC/42/47/Add.2 safe drinking water, such as dams, logging projects, massive oil palm plantations and processing plants, and other agribusinesses systematically using pesticides and fertilizers. For all types of megaprojects, the Special Rapporteur urges the Government to carry out human rights impact assessments at each stage of the projects, while ensuring the meaningful participation of those affected in a transparent manner and facilitating easy access to information. The focus of his thematic report to the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session is on how human rights can be incorporated into each stage of the megaproject cycle. As regards the present report, he would like to provide an analysis of the construction and operational stages, with a focus on dams. 40. Prior to the construction of dams, the residents living in villages that will be affected face challenges to ensure their basic needs even before being displaced. For instance, in Timpayasa, and the surrounding villages of Penampang District in Sabah, which will be affected by the construction of the proposed Kaiduan dam, the Special Rapporteur heard complaints that those villages were no longer receiving government support for their basic needs, anticipating that the villages would no longer exist once the dam was constructed. If the dam project were to go ahead, four villages would be submerged and another five would need to be relocated. 41. In a meeting with the affected villagers, the Special Rapporteur heard several rhetorical questions asking about the justification for a mega-dam and its potential costs and benefits. During the pre-construction phases, particularly at the stage of authorization, he urges the Government to carry out a careful comparative analysis of the different technical options to ensure water security for the entire population, before deciding to implement megaprojects for water supply. This analysis, as well as the final decision, must be carried out together with the communities involved, both those affected and those that would benefit from each solution. Decisions need to be taken together and any development project should not move ahead without the free, prior and informed consent of those affected, who must be consulted in good faith (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, art. 32). 42. After the construction and during the operation of dams, careful monitoring of the livelihoods, particularly access to water and sanitation, of the displaced population, as well as those who remain, is key. As a result of the construction of the Bakun hydroelectric dam, which began in 1998, approximately 10,000 people were resettled in 15 different villages with the promise of land, free housing and other support to sustain their livelihoods in a new home. Sungai Asap is now home to those displaced and, after almost two decades, the villagers still do not have proper access to safe water and are facing the problem of the quality of their self-supplied water. 43. In addition to the impact on the quality of water posed by certain development activities, there are risks to the lives of those living near those activities. In the village of Kelaik in Kelantan, located downstream of a river, one elderly Orang Asli man died while bathing in the river allegedly due to the release of water from a mine located upstream. The case was reported but no further action was taken due to a lack of evidence, particularly information from the mining company, about when the water was released from the mine. The Government and the private companies operating such development activities must assess the risks of harm posed to the population living nearby and take measures to prevent or mitigate those risks. D. Population living in informal settlements 44. The outstanding statistics recorded by Malaysia as regards access to drinking water do not, unfortunately, include those living in traditional style houses, known as “longhouses”, which are located in coastal villages and mountain areas, as well as other forms of informal settlements. Throughout the visit, particularly in East Malaysia, the Special Rapporteur saw several types of informal settlements, occupied by Malaysian nationals, stateless persons, undocumented population or others with an irregular status. The term “informal settlements” refers not only to the displaced homeless encampments and modalities, such as squats in abandoned buildings, improvised homes in containers, 10