07 June 2006

Jail those buggers

The recent disaster in Kampung Pasir, Hulu Klang buried four people and destroyed three blocks of longhouses (occupied by 232 people, mostly Indonesians).

No! I am not going to start blaming people or pass judgment nor am I going to try to analyse what went wrong.

As noted by Property Malaysia, 5 of the most biggest landslides in Malaysia occurred around the same area.

All 5 locations where within about 2km along the same stretch of Middle Ring Road II:
Dec 11, 1993 – Highland Towers
May 15, 1999 – Athanaeum Tower
Oct 5, 2000 – Bukit Antarabangsa
Nov 20, 2002 – Taman Hillview
May 31, 2006 – Kampung Pasir

Here are some of my suggestions:

1. STOP, I repeat stop any development (as in housing) in the area.

2. Make the river catchments protected natural reserves (which cannot be de-gazetted easily in the future) with minimal human interference.

3. Survey existing housing areas for weak points and rectify them.
For example, I read somewhere that the houses above the kampung where the landslide occurred don’t have a proper drainage system.

4. Start a massive afforestation programme in the area. Trees and plants are the best ways to prevent soil erosion.

5. Remove all illegal kampungs/ squatter settlements. Throw the owners/ developers in jail.
If the residents are illegal immigrants, deport them. If they are permanent residents (PR) or Malaysian citizens, give them low cost housing. If they refuse to leave – throw them in jail too.

Remembered a joke one of my friends told me - about Selangor becoming an Indonesian colony by the year 2020.

In a related news the Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid announced today that developers and consultants may go to prison if their projects damage the environment or trigger landslides and other disasters.

Related links:
- Excuses! Excuses! Excuses!
- Next time there’s a landslide...: Builders may go to prison

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i heard a rumour some time back from some contractors from old days that when they built zoo negara, they diverted a river to make the site more suitable.

problem is, after many decades, no one remembers where that river flows now...

Seal in Astral said...

I agree with u very much Adam. If they know 2 years ago and was concerned over property market why not they control the development, or better stop. It is easy to blame the contractors but where was the enforcement? the same they said when Highland Towers happened ...hangat-hangat tahi ayam je...it is repeated every times something happens. Will they get back the lost life?

mama23beas said...

I'm glad you blog this to voice out your opinion.

Prof Ibrahim Komoo (of UKM), I think has talked about this countless times. This area is obviously 'weak' in the structural geological point of view. It is not hard to understand even for laymen, when he showed slide after slide of the aerial photos, showing the the lines of weaknesses.

When will people learn from this, my heart ache when I heard about yet another tragedy from the same area.

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