LET'S take a trip to Hong Kong. It is a fabulous place with many malls to shop at, amusement parks to visit, local food to try and interesting sights to see, especially Victoria Peak where one can see almost all of Hong Kong island and parts of Kowloon.
The incredible view of the famous city's skyscrapers is breathtaking from the peak. But the same view can also boggle the mind, especially if you are from Penang where hill slope developments are making the news.
It makes hill slope developments in Penang seem almost minor and even non-threatening. If Hong Kong has been building on slopes and on top of hills all this time, what is the problem? Why are we making so much noise about it?
Some 50 years ago, Hong Kong island needed land. The hill slopes were in great demand for housing and even farming due to the growing population and economy. The island ended up with a high concentration of developments on steep land close to manmade and natural slopes, which were exposed to landslide risks, especially during heavy rain.
In the late 1940s, Hong Kong saw 470 deaths because of landslides. At the time, building works were unregulated by the government and there was also minimal expert geotechnical engineering input.
In the 1970s, a number of big landslides happened again. This led to the setting up of the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO, formerly known as the Geotechnical Control Office) in 1977. The government got very serious about hill slopes.
Manmade slopes in Hong Kong were all subjected to geotechnical design standards and checking. Those built before 1977 were checked for their stability and upgraded to meet new design requirements to prevent landslides. In the mid-1990s, GEO began using an explicit risk-based approach and strategy to check slopes and manage landslides.
The comprehensive Slope Safety System was developed and enforced by the GEO to reduce landslide risks and impact, and to address public attitudes and tolerability of such risks to avoid unrealistic expectations.
Without going into technical details, the system aims to holistically improve slope safety standards, technology, administrative and regulatory framework. The system ensures safety standards of new slopes, correct and maintain manmade slopes, and enhances the appearance and aesthetics of engineered slopes.
All that is done by clearing hill slopes of vulnerable squatters and unauthorised structures, and exercising geotechnical control in land-use planning, among other things.
The system also promotes public awareness and response in slope safety through public education, publicity, information services and public warnings, and gets property owners to take responsibility for slope safety by recommending statutory repair orders.
The Slope Safety System continued to evolve through experience and progressive internal reforms, leading Hong Kong to be famous for its urban slope engineering and landslide risk management, which enabled sustainable development today.
Penang and Hong Kong are both islands, minus Seberang Prai, Kowloon and the New Territories. Both have many hilly areas and limited land to develop to meet housing and commercial demands. Their sizes are not much different too. Hong Kong measures 1,104sq km, while Penang is smaller at 1,031sq km, according to Wikipedia.
Based on Hong Kong's 2010 census, the population was over 7 million with a density of almost 6,500 per sq km. It is one of the densest urban areas in the world. Penang, based on the national population and housing census for the same year, has a population of about 1.6 million and a density of over 1,500 people per sq km.
But are Penang's needs similar to Hong Kong's? I recently heard that Penang's hillslope developments look like those in Hong Kong.
The disturbing part is the situation looks like Hong Kong in the 1970s, when the landslides hit. Says who? Two retired GEO officials from Hong Kong living here under the Malaysia My Second Home programme.
People concerned about the environment are asking many questions -- Is it safe to cut the hills? Is it legal? Are there safety standards? What are the safety standards? By whose standards? What has the local council been doing? What can it do? Who maintains and checks the slopes? Do we have a department as good as Hong Kong's GEO? Can the hill cuttings be stopped? What can be done to preserve what is left? Why can't developers build away from the hills?
Many are asking the billion ringgit question -- Do we need more hill slope projects like condominiums and houses that the average Penang resident can't afford? Do we need more of these hillslope and sea-fronting posh projects in Tanjung Bungah and Batu Ferringhi?
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