Landslides in Bukit Antarabangsa..What next?!!
Almost fifteen years have passed since the Highland Towers collapsed. And within the fifteen years, once again you see houses being built on the slopes of what was once, and perhaps still is, a deadly zone. Apparently Mother Nature was not very pleased with what had transpired over the past fifteen years, so she summoned another landslide which covered an area of ten acres, snatching four lives in the process (as of 7th of December 2000
Also, please read the following article on a Highland Towers survivor: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp…211&sec=nation
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Originally Posted by Dr Benjamin George
“The politicians will climb up their helicopters and say all development must stop.
“There will be a stop-work order for two months but in the third month the tractors will start work again. “I have survived long enough to see all this nonsense repeated,” he said, adding that landslides would happen every few years. When asked how he felt about the latest tragedy, Dr George – the Highland Towers owners and residents committee chairman who had to abandon his home at Block B of the Highland Towers – said he was sad, angry and disappointed. “Imagine if it were your father, mother or child in there,” he said. Dr George, who lives in Ukay Heights, is currently fighting against further development of Taman Hijau which is on the same hill range. He claims that the developers keep on saying that they can develop the area further and make it stable with the latest technology. |
I think what Dr. George said was spot on. We think that when a disaster strikes, we would learn from our past mistakes. But apparently, for the sake of profits, development on a dangerous territory would still take place, but at the expense of human lives. I have no idea how the houses at Bukit Antarabangsa was built, but from what I could see in the pictures, there were no apparent earth retaining structures to prevent movement of soil.
Since the first occurrence of landslides at Bukit Antarabangsa, it amazes me to see that the Public Works Department still approve development projects and that while developing the projects, the developers took the geotechnical side of things for granted so easily! And now that disaster has happened, only then does the PWD decides to probe into the matter. When the Highland Towers first collapsed, did they not conduct any investigation then? If they did, then would they not have learnt from past experiences?
Knowing that Bukit Antarabangsa is a potentially hazardous area, how could the PWD take such development projects for granted? Was it corruption? Was it the fault of the developers? Or was it purely the wrath of Mother Nature? It is certainly easy to blame every disaster as the will of God, but rather than using God’s name in vain, we should analyse the chain of events that led to the disaster ourselves first.
If the developers claim that the latest technology would prevent such landslides from happening, then clearly their claim has been proven wrong. Whatever claims they made are just a farce. And knowing that developers only have profits in their mind, I am not surprised that they would cut corners to maximise their earnings. I am entirely not convinced if developers say that they are developing any area for the sake of social responsibility. I dare say that it is profit first, then only comes social responsibility for them.
Although civil engineers are not entirely to be blamed, I am not surprised if such happenings would give us civil engineers and also developers a bad name. After all, the approval for the project should come from the engineers, and the safety of the project should be assessed by an engineer! Long story cut short, in the end we would find that profit is what motivates the act of cutting corners.
Landslides are not events that cannot be prevented altogether. We have earth retaining and water retaining structures, as well as earth stabilising measures to ensure that landslides at such large scales (such as the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide). We have the knowledge to prevent, or at least control, landslides, and also the technology. So, where have the knowledge and technology gone to?
In the end, one thing for certain is that if this is the work of our Malaysian engineers and developers, I would never trust them on projects like the Three Gorges Dam.
Want to be a part of the Three Gorges Dam construction team? Forget it!
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