Stop blame game, says HBA

http://www.mmail.com.my/story/stop-blame-game-says-hba-42203

Stop blame game, says HBA
MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012 - 15:22
by Amirul Ruslan
Location:
KUALA LUMPUR

THE National House Buyers Association (HBA) has urged all parties to stop playing the blame game, as the findings on the Bukit Setiawangsa landslip must be made public first.

"Stop attempting to cover up by proportioning the blame to who is in charge now, then or present," HBA secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said in a statement to The Malay Mail yesterday.

The association called for Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to be proactive by adopting measures such as identifying the number of hillside projects, reviewing all approvals to check for maintenance of slope and drainage systems, preparing geotechnical reports, as well as risk assessment reports.

"We understand that the federal government had considered a new comprehensive law on hillside development modelled on Hong Kong’s Building Ordinance to prevent future tragedies.

"Such a law is laudable in the long-term but is more important to identify the roots causes of our recurring landslides and amend existing rules to act firmly against the incompetent and the corrupt,” said Chang.

Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) national council member S. Sivanyanam said that there were specialists and engineers whose expertise can be used to formulate guidelines to avoid incidences like the collapse of the retaining wall on Saturday.

He said this was because it was the job of the local councils to decide based on recommendations from the geotechnical department.

Sivanyanam, who is also Rehda's Negri Sembilan branch chairman, however, declined comment when asked whether hillside developments should be stopped in the face of landslide risk.

"The technology back then is different from ones used today," he said.

Sivanyanam said he was unable to comment without all the details and specifications of the collapsed wall, built in 1992, to compare it to a wall built nowadays.

He praised local councils for being more stringent these days in their regulations in approving new developments as compared to the past.

It was reported that following the landslip, Mayor Datuk Ahmad Phesal Talib had said that the collapsed retaining wall would not have been approved if based on the latest guidelines in 2010.