Don’t compromise in landslide probe, Dosh told
GEORGE TOWN: The Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Dosh) has been told not to compromise in its probe into the Bukit Kukus landslide, which has claimed nine lives.
The Penang Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) urged Dosh to take action against those responsible for any breach of law, including breaching the stopwork order issued to the construction site.
Penang MTUC secretary K. Veeriah urged Dosh to issue stopwork orders to all hillside development in Penang until they complied with soil-erosion mitigating measures.
“Dosh should not and cannot compromise on the matter.
“We urge the authorities to investigate the matter.”
Veeriah said MTUC had acknowledged non-governmental organisation Penang Forum’s statement that it had warned the state government of the dangers of hill clearings in Bukit Kukus and other areas.
“The state government, the contractors and agencies must be held responsible for disregarding the advice from experts.
“We believe that if they took note of the warning and instituted remedial action, including suspension of work, the incident could have been avoided.”
He said MTUC found it unforgiving that slope-mitigating measures were not completely put in place by those involved in such projects.
“The questions that needs to be addressed are who are those responsible and whether action should be taken against them? We believe the answer is obvious.
“We refer to the Penang chief minister’s (Chow Kon Yeow) statement that heavy rain could have caused the landslide.
“Our response to him is this — you do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand the reality of landslides during the year-end rainy season, what more when the slopes are, as reported, 60 to 90 degrees.
“If only the state government and the authorities took measures knowing that the rain would have an impact on the fragile hills of Penang, this tragedy could have been avoided.”
He said MTUC was disappointed with Chow’s statement that hillslope developments would not be stopped.
“Given the fact that there has not been any soil-erosion mitigating measures taken at any hillslope developments in the state, as reported, we are appalled at his stand on the matter.
“He seems to be divorced from the possibilities of yet another tragedy.”
He said the Tanjung Bungah landslide, which killed 11 workers last year, should have been a lesson and not forgotten.