Chanyai Villa Apartments

This is scary man. The Government should do something to help these people. Don't wait until the unexpected things happen. Yo know what I mean ~ Remember Highland Towers!

Residents in fear of a 'Highland Towers' in Sabah

Kota Kinabalu: Chanyai Villa Apartments at Jalan Tuaran used to be one of the most sought after properties in KK.

But now, residents there fear they may end up like the Highland Towers or Bukit Antarabangsa landslide victims in the peninsula because it appears like the hill behind it may collapse anytime.

A resident, June, said she MPs and Assemblymen had been voicing out the fear of the residents but the developer and Management Corporation had done nothing.

She said that every time it was raised with the developer and Management Corporation, they only gave assurances to the residents.

"But now it has reared its ugly head again and I for one, not knowing what had happened in the past, feel that unless immediate remedial action is taken, we could be victims of a landslide," she said.

She said she is a newcomer to Chanyai after buying an apartment there recently. "They have suggested that a retaining wall be built to prevent landslide from occurring.

"Sadly, it was never carried out probably overlooked or they just didn't bother," she said.

June said after the landslide last year, the residents wrote to City Hall and conducted a dialogue with the developer and Management Corporation in the presence of Likas Assemblyman Datuk Liew Teck Chan. But until now, the retaining wall has yet to be built.

And to rub salt into the residents' "wound", she said what is believed to be indiscriminate hill cutting had been carried out and asked whether City Hall had approved the new project site.

She said adding lessons should have been learnt from the Highlands Tower that collapsed in Dec. 11, 1993 in Ulu Klang, Selangor, which claimed 48 lives and the landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa, also at Ulu Klang on Dec. 6, last year.

Quoting a blogger, nictancb of Citizen's Blog, she asked, "How many tragedies must happen before people learn not to meddle with hill slopes?"

Many of the residents, she said, have no place else to go and called Chanyai Villa their home.

"We hope immediate and competent action will be taken before newspapers in the country report another tragic mishap."

Source : Daily Express, Wednesday, 12 August 2009