OSAKA -- Opponents to the controversial Yoshino River dam project in Tokushima are dissatisfied with a ruling coalition proposal made earlier this week that the 100 billion yen project be returned to the drawing board.

Masayoshi Himeno, a key member of a citizens' group opposing the project, is worried that the ruling alliance's failure to indisputably scrap the plan will allow the Construction Ministry to propose a new but similar project.

The current project, originally planned in 1982, calls for the creating of floodgates and the demolishing of an existing 250-year-old "daijuzeki" rock barrier on the river. The ministry said the current barrier cannot withstand major floods and poses a threat to local residents.

But Himeno's group and other local residents argue that repairing the current rock barrier and creating embankments would be a better way to guard against major floods. Building a big dam, they said, would be a waste of taxpayer money and damage the river's water quality.

Like the Lake Nakaumi reclamation project, the fate of the Yoshino River dam has been closely watched by environmentalists and critics of large public works projects.

"It was an easy question -- whether to scrap the dam project, which was overwhelmingly opposed by local residents in a plebiscite," Himeno said. "But the ruling parties failed to do that simple matter."

In a January plebiscite, 102,759 Tokushima residents voted against the Yoshino dam project while only 9,367 supported it. However, the Construction Ministry continued to effectively ignore the plebiscite, saying its result had no legally binding power.

Himeno is concerned because the ministry has already started considering a new plan to move the construction site upstream from the current proposed site, which is 14 km from the mouth of the river. The ruling parties' recommendation would provide the ministry with a good opportunity to proceed with the new plan, he said.

The ministry is maintaining its position that construction of a new dam is necessary, saying the ruling bloc's recommendation does not rule it out.

Prior to the coalition's decision, Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the Liberal Democratic Party, visited the proposed dam site twice this month and discussed the issue with Himeno. But the final recommendations by the parties indicate that even the powerful Kamei could not resist the strong pressures from the ministry and Tokushima Prefecture, Himeno said.