After landslide, activist loses faith with Penang’s ‘sleeping’ authorities
How many lives have to be sacrificed to get Penang to stop all hill development, asks activist.
GEORGE TOWN: An activist today asked if the Penang government and local authorities would ever learn from the recent disastrous hill slope developments, saying she has lost hope and trust in the enforcement authorities.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia honorary secretary Meenakshi Raman said their promises to take care of the hills have gone unheeded.
“You want to say this Bukit Kukus landslide today would be a wake-up call for the state?
“No, I don’t think so, because I think they are still sleeping.
“How many lives do we have to lose before Penang stops hill development?” she asked after visiting the landslide site Friday.
In the 1.56pm incident Friday, a landslide at an elevated road under construction swept away seven workers’ cabins, killing two and injuring one. Ten other workers are still missing.
Meenakshi said the key issue was how the state could allow development on a steep hill with a gradient of a “dizzy 60 to 90 degrees”.
She said coupled with the rainy season, any normal person would say the said project was courting with disaster.
“We are fed up, angry and outraged. Who are we to blame?
“Where are the occupational safety and health people? Where is the city council? After approving the project, they forgot everything.
“What would the state do now? Are they still going to carry out gargantuan highway projects over tall hills?”
Meenakshi said despite pledges of “super strict” enforcement promised by the state over the planned 70km of elevated roads around the island, today’s landslide showed it was simply not capable.
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“Our local authorities clearly are not competent or able to monitor and supervise. So all that talk about ‘monitoring, strict standards’, for lack of a better word, is bull. We have lost our faith.”