Sunday, December 11 2004
the Sun weekend

editorial

IF ANYONE NEEDS a reminder on the foolishness of disturbing hillslopes, perhaps no lesson is stronger or more bitter that the Highland Towers tragedy of 1993. The words of so many critics of our lax governance - that lives would be lost before the authorities sit up - unfortunately proved true when 48 people perished under the rubble of the ill-fated condominium.

Although 11 year have passed since that dreadful December day, the horror lives on for the survivors and the nation at large. To be sure, the law on hillslope development has not been tightened soon enough.

As if to cleanse the nation’s psyche of the emotional scare of that disaster, the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 has been suitably amended to prohibit the cutting of hills that are more than 35 in gradient. And all state legislatures have resolutely agreed to be bound by the new rules of development.

But to the public’s dismay, that message has not permeated to the authorities that monitor development projects nor to the builders whose optimism about their next profit centre is unshaken by previous disasters, no matter how many of those have occurred.

Consequently, the public have been shocked by further episodes of landslides building collapses in such places as the Cameron Highlands and Ampang.

Conservation-minded groups have kept a wary eye out for signs of excessive eagerness to develop highland areas, as their experience has shown that the mighty lure of the development dollar is far too strong for a majority of policymakers to resist.

Structural plans, forest reserves, catchment areas and development guidelines notwithstanding, many a fragile ecosystem has been sacrificed before to the development imperative.

That is unfortunate news for our quality of life. As the effects of environmental degradation accumulate, the impacts felt downstream in the form of poorer water quality, increased siltation, more frequent flash floods, slope failures, biodiversity loss and worse.

Despite their deep sensitivity to these idioms of sustainable development, however, those at the helm must feel compelled to prioritise whatever generates more trickle-down wealth for the people.

Such thinking, however, is deeply flawed. An eco-tourism drive that promises to propel the GNP skywards will bring desolation to the community instead if it destroys the very environment that attracts revenue-generating visitors.

The trail of damage caused by bulldozing such projects through produces mush material for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports that planners pour over.

Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo,who has stopped some 30 projects that were approved without EIA reports, offers hope of a new-found respect for ecologically-sound development. But for each such restraining check, how many other unsustainable schemes steam ahead is anybody’s guess.

So new rules alone for the ecofriendly development of hillslopes will not be sufficient to stop the tide of environmental damage that is rolling on. Policy makers need to embrace a new ethos that changes the value they place on the pristine acres of Nature that lie before their eyes from a revenue to a conservation basis.

The control we show today will determine whether future generations will have a refreshing view of the horizon before them.