7 landslides in a week: Worst ever in Penampang.
Landslides along Jalan Penampang-Tambunan.
Dr Randolph (middle) assisting the affected villager.
PENAMPANG : Continuous rain, sometimes more than six hours a day for whole of last week inevitably caused floods in many areas here with landslides happening at seven locations along Jalan Penampang-Tambunan.
There were also over 17 small landslides occurred in a few villages including the one in Kg Sarapung Kolopis that killed an elderly man and injured a woman.
This was confirmed by some NGOs who have been rounding to give helping hands to the villagers.
The natural disaster recorded the worst in the history of natural disasters in this district.
Even Public Works District Engineer Raynner Joseph said that there have never been so many landslides that occurred at one time in Penampang before.
“The natural disaster that we saw this week recorded a very intense amount of rain. But there were other reasons for the landslides. We strongly believe that the continuous rain since last Sunday is the main culprit.
“It has been raining continuously daily for the past seven days including today. And rampant clearing of land particularly on the hills triggered landslides because the ground cannot sustain the soil any longer.
“Heavy rain from upper areas such as Moyog, Babagon and Notorus carried large volumes of water all the way to the Penampang Valley. The flood from upstream also brought huge amount of debris namely timber waste into the Moyog River,” he said in a statement.
According to him, most of the soil along the Jalan Penampang hill became over-saturated with excess water caused by the continuous rain.
This eventually affected the soil density and increased the groundwater pressure.
He said the landslides occurred along the roads specifically next to Kolopis bridge, two location in Pogunon, Madsiang, Hap Seng Quarry, Timpoluon and SK Babagon.
Of the seven locations, Kampung Pogunon and the Hap Seng Quarry highlands near Kampung Madsiang were the worst affected based on the weight and amount of collapsed soil.
He said that teams from the Public Works Department are still on the ground to investigate the landslides.
He said that despite facing various challenges to ensure that the roads are cleared immediately following a natural disaster, the task is undertaken jointly with other agencies such as the police including organisations such as the Red Crescent and 4×4 Team.
“We managed to complete the clearing works in three to eight hours for each affected location. It’s all depending on the severity and weather conditions. It is difficult to clear the soil that has settled on the roads if it is raining.
“We need to ensure the safety of everyone, including workers and road users. Thankfully, throughout this time, no untoward incidents occurred,” he said.
He said that on the first day when water was rising, they faced problems moving the machinery to the affected area.
They had to wait until the water has receded so that they could bring in the machinery.
In addition, he said there were some cables owned by the SESB and TM that fell, further complicating the cleaning process.
The cleaning work, he said had to be done more carefully and slowly until the SESB and TM were able to dismantle cables that were severed.
“This is one of the challenging tasks that we had to face,” he said.
Further on land clearing by the villagers which identified as one of the causes of the disaster, Raynner said most of the lands were privately owned.
To this, he said that it is not mandatory for them to obtain permission from the local authorities namely the Penampang Municipal Council if they want to carry out land clearing works.
“Normally, the municipal council requires developers to submit development plan and obtain approval from them so as to prevent disasters such as what occurred recently.
“But in the case of the private landowners, if they do not want to obtain approval for land clearing works such as to build houses, no one can stop them from doing so.
There is no law to prevent private landowners from carrying out development on their land,” he said.
To this he said it is high time for the government to ensure all land development projects irrespective of purpose must obtain the necessary approval so as minimise adverse impact on the land and its surroundings.
“If no approval is given, local authorities can block the installation of water or electricity meters on the said land property,” he said.
He said that after the situation has returned to normal here in Penampang, they will hold a post-mortem to identify and discuss improvements to the district.
Elsewhere, on social media, it was reported that an NGO is visiting 17 badly affected areas in several villages that were hit by the landslides to help clean up and distribute food items to the victims.
Volunteer Dr Randolf Paza and his team Lion Club Penampang confirmed that they have providing assistance to victims in Madsiang, Kipouvo, Tulung (three areas) and Kolopis (8 areas).