Make detailed EIA a must for hillside projects
The Sun 14/06/2006

THE Department of the environment requres be Detailed Environmental impact Assessment (DEIA) for the following activities under the Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities) (Environmental impact Assessment) order, 1987:

• Iron and steel industry

• Pulp and paper mills

• Cement plants

• Construction of coal-fired power plants

• Construction of dams for water supply and hydroelectric power schemes

• Land reclamation

• Incineration plant (sceduled wastes and solid wastes)

• Construction of municipal solid waste landfill faciliti (including municipal solid waste transfer station)

• Project involving land clearing where 50% of the area or more has slopes exceeding 25 degrees (except quarries)

• Logging covering an area exceeding 500 hectars

• Development of tourist or recreational facilities on islands in sorrounding waters which are gazetted as national marine parks.

• Contruction of recovery plant (off-site) for lead-acid battery wastes

The above list of activities requiring a DEIA does not include hillside residential or housing development, specifically. The closest we notice is the project involving land clearing where 50% or more than 50% of the area has slopes of more than 25 degress.

We would like to highlight a business an district office complex under construction, nearing completion in the heart of Klang Town. A large piece of greenery has been cleared to make way for the business area and district office complex. The slopes appear to be around 25 degrees and in some place is more than that.The development takes place next to a main access road leading out to Kuala Lumpur at the Simpang Lima round-about. How secure is the slope is anybody's guess. Just below the sides of the main road is another slope of more than 25 degrees.Traffic is always near standstill at this location during peak hours and slow-moving during other days.

Since lives have been lost in many landslide incidents, carrying out a detailed EIA should be a mandatory requirement for any type of hillside or slope development.A DEIA should also be required for projects involving less than 50 hectares of land. Future application approval for a development must considers the previous land use on the side in question and not just in question and not just the project per se.After a certain percentage of development the outhorities must not allow for any further development. The slope stabilisation and maintenance efforts should be borne by developers and not by consumers.

Enforcement will still be acrucial part of environmental protection, just as for road safety.

Ratna Devi Nadarajan Klang.