POLITICAL WILL NEEDED FOR SAFETY OF HILLSLOPE DEVELOPMENT

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 11 (Bernama) -- The federal and state governments should
have strong political will in ensuring the safety of hillslope developments to
prevent landslides, MCA deputy president Chua Soi Lek said Thursday.

Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) is a uni-racial political party in
Malaysia that represents the Malaysian Chinese ethnic, is one of the three major
component parties of the ruling coalition in Malaysia called the Barisan
Nasional (BN) in Malay, or National Front in English.

"There are clear guidelines on highland development by the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment.

"These guidelines are not only set out clearly according to the gradient of
hillslopes. They also lay out steps to be taken to ensure safety on hillslope
development and therefore should be strictly adhered to, regulated, monitored,
and enforced," he told a news conference here.

Commenting on the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide tragedy which had claimed
four lives so far, Chua said it was learnt that the Ampang Jaya Municipal
Council (MPAJ) did not even have a senior engineer to supervise highland
development.

"There should be close supervising during the project implementation. If
there are environmental impact assessment (EIA) requirements, who is to ensure
that mitigating measures are followed and enforced? Supervision, we are told is
lacking," he said.

"When the projects are completed, who is responsible for monitoring the
projects and for how long they should be monitored? Leaving it to the developer
to do the job of maintenance without being monitored is not the best method to
ensure compliance," he added.

Chua said landslide incidents provided the opportunity for the authorities
to investigate and identify the actual cause.

"However, it is often that nobody seems to be accountable and the usual
finger-pointing and blame game starts."

He said that while some consultants had paid the price for being negligent,
no private developer had ever been brought to court for failing to comply with
conditions outlined by the local authority.

He also said that the buyers should not be faulted for buying houses on
hillslopes as they would be convinced that the buildings were safe after the
they had been approved and certified fit for occupation by the
authority.

"However buyers have to be more careful in purchasing hillslope houses as
they can be a time bomb, as seen in the recent landslide tragedy," he
said.

Chua said the authorities should review all hillslope developments that had
been approved but had yet to be implemented while ongoing projects should be
strictly monitored and regulated.

-- BERNAMA