Landslide, lip service fears

06/06/2006 The Malay Mail

THE hillslope highrise project has been cut in size and temporarily halted, but Bukit Mas residents in Taman Melawati are frantically pointing at tell-tale signs of a future landslide.

They voiced their fears to a VIP delegation who visited their area yesterday in the wake of last Wednesday’s Kampung Pasir tragedy in Hulu Kelang.

The visitors, who included Deputy Federal Territory Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusof, the Ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary, Yew Teong Look, and its Secretary-General, Datuk Ab Hakim Borhan, and Kuala Lumpur Datuk Bandar Datuk Ruslin Hasan, tried to assure them that all’s well.

Residents said apart from the close proximity of the project to a hilltop water reservoir, erosion has also "crept" into their homes.

They said a stream is flowing out from under a nearby hill where a water reservoir is located through their housing estate via a ditch.

Residents believe the stream flows under the slope where the proposed project is located.

One of them claimed that the Fire and Rescue Department could not get its Skylift up Bukit Mas’ narrow road.

Residents had sent a petition letter against the project to City Hall and relevent authorities last month, prior to the Kampung Pasir incident.

Ruslin said the apartment and town villa project next to Bukit Mas was approved in 1990.

"After the Highland Towers incident in 1993, it was halted and another developer took over and re-submitted the plan," he said.

"The latest plan submitted in April had the original 110 residential units down to just 62 apartments and 12 town villas. The apartment block was reduced to six storeys from seven, and the town villas to four storeys from six."

Both Ruslin and the deputy minister, however, could not say when the report will be ready.

Resident Kong Wai Keong said residents are living in fear because of soil erosion during heavy rain, pointing out to a "landslip" in 2001 and a minor one that affected a resident’s house in April this year.

"Cracks have also appeared on several houses after the 2001 incident. They would not withstand any piling works," he said.
Kong also pointed out that only an access road separates the reservoir from the proposed hillside project.

Zuriah Izhar, whose house was affected by the April landslip, said she had to build a retaining wall to shore up the front of her home.

"When I bought the house in 1990, the developer told me there wouldn’t be any development here. It doesn’t matter if the proposed project is big or small. We just don’t want it."