Two residents who live below the cleared hills of Taman Seri Rambai remember green slopes and muddy water after heavy rain, and their accounts, carried by the New Straits Times, trace the change to more than a decade of hillside work.
Faris Haikal Anizal, 22, has lived along Jalan Bukit Kukus since birth. The factory worker played football with friends on open ground below the hills as a boy, before the clearing spread. “Everything was green back then. Gradually, the hills were cleared, and now there is no longer a green patch left,” he said. The lower slopes, he added, were cleared more extensively over the past two to three years.
He now watches the water. “When it rains heavily, there is muddy water. I am always worried because this could be dangerous for those living below the hill,” he said.
M. Veera, 67, a retired police sergeant-major who has lived in the area since 1998, said development arrived in stages over about two decades. He raised landslide concerns during earlier construction, warning that clearing hillsides affects how the ground holds water, and he still monitors runoff when the rain is heavy.
Concrete barriers have gone up in some areas, he said, but he remains concerned about the monsoon season, when prolonged or heavy rainfall raises the risk around exposed slopes. “It is unfortunate that another major landslide occurred, this time claiming an innocent life,” he said. “I hope that development in Paya Terubong and its surrounding areas can take a step back.”
The objections are not new. Residents of the estate and nearby Taman Lau Geok Swee have campaigned against hillside development, rock blasting and mudflows for more than ten years, dating their first complaints to earthworks in October 2015 that left roads muddy whenever it rained, The Star reported.
They sought political intervention between 2015 and 2017 and took their case to the state Appeals Board. When a deadly landslide struck a construction site in Tanjung Bungah in 2017, they reminded the state that they faced a similar threat.
The notice board at the site lists two apartment towers, one with 783 units across 35 levels and another with 887 units across 34 levels, plus eight lower ground levels and car parks, shops and a management office. The project began as six-storey townhouses and changed several times along the way.
Sunday’s landslide killed Dr Wong Kar Lin, 73, when the back of his house was hit while he prepared breakfast. His wife, Chang Mei Nuo, 68, and his mother-in-law survived.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow held the developer and landowner of a condominium and road project responsible for the fatal landslide, noting that it occurred on the developer’s land and that both parties were answerable for site safety and mitigation. He warned of possible legal consequences.
Stop-work orders have been issued for a housing development and for slope stabilisation works behind the affected row of houses, pending safety inspections. One resident, known as Loon, said his family of nine was told to vacate and has booked two hotel rooms for three days, with some relatives staying at a Buddhist religious centre.
