Monday November 9, 2009
Hillslope landowners warned
By YIP YOKE TENG
OWNERS of land on hillslope beware, the Selangor government may seize your land if you fail to fulfil your responsibilities in ensuring that it does not pose a danger to the people and the environment.
Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said the state was working with its legal advisers to implement the measure through provisions under the National Land Code as a measure to prevent landslides.
Remedial measures: Work in progress at Km13 of Jalan Ipoh where a landslide occurred recently. “If you leave your land abandoned and the action brings adverse effects to the people and surroundings, the state should seize your land and become the rightful owner.
“This is the extreme measure we may take to monitor the situation,” he said after chairing the draft Selangor Highland and Hillslope Planning and Development Guideline workshop on Saturday at the State Assembly Hall in Shah Alam.
The workshop was the second organised by the state to gather input from the communities, developers, professionals and NGOs to address the problem. About 150 representatives attended the workshop while the first session held on Sept 18 involved some 200 participants.
He said 141 hillslope projects involving Class 3 (between 25° and 35°) and Class 4 (35° and above) slopes were now frozen but the developers could submit fresh applications drawn in accordance to the guidelines, and the state would assess these.
“It is not economically viable to just freeze all these projects involving millions of ringgit,” he said.
However, he denied that the state had lifted its freeze on hillslope developments.
He said the workshop had received a lot of feedback, especially regarding the development of Class 3 slopes as well as on the maintaining of hillslopes, adding that these points would be taken into consideration during the fine-tuning of the guidelines.
“We will also look into how the guidelines should be enforced. This may lead to the setting up of a special committee to monitor the approvals and maintenance of hillslope projects,” he added.
At the same time, the state will instruct local authorities to study the hillslope developments in their areas by forming a task force consisting of officers with the expertise.
He added that even though the workshops were over, the public could still send in their feedback to the state.
State Town and Country Planning Department director Mohd Jaafar Mohd Atan said the guidelines, prepared by the department together with the Mineral and Geoscience Department, other relevant technical agencies and local authorities, would be ready by February.
He said the three important elements introduced in the new guidelines are:
·the buffer between building and slope with a gradient of more than 70 degrees should be twice the height of the slope;
·the hillslope development must not close up any natural waterway; and
·the topography must remain.
“You cannot go against nature, therefore we must make sure that developers do not tamper with the topography and destroy natural waterways,” he said.
Mohd Jaafar said the draft guidelines had incorporated existing ones governing hillslope development prepared by the Housing and Local Government Ministry and Natural Resources and Environment Ministry in 1997, 2005 and 2009.
The guidelines take heed of four main principles, namely safety in terms of geological disaster, development viability, environmental maintenance and legality.
He added that hills in Selangor were mostly found in Ampang, Ulu Selangor, Selayang, Rawang, Kajang, Subang and Shah Alam which the Titiwangsa Mountain Range encompassed.
“The focus is on Ampang where the hillslopes are most dangerous. If the state government permits, we will launch a study specifically on the area,” he said.
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