JULY 3 — New residential developments are spreading quite rapidly on hills throughout Malaysia. When I came to Kuala Lumpur two years ago, I felt that to live in such an environment flushed with greenery will be an amazing experience for me.

Since being here, I have discovered that there exist very worrying concerns hidden under the green hills for people who are living on slopes in the urban areas. The possibility of a landslide disaster to occur without warning could happen at any time.

In Japan as my home country where frequent earthquakes usually occur, the geological conditions and soil composition are very weak as a lot of volcanoes are located all over Japan. In most of cities in Japan, the residential areas are spreading along the foot of mountains and hilly terrains. A lot of sediment-related disasters also occur every year in Japan due to frequent heavy rainfall and typhoons.

As such, legislation and technologies related to slope disasters have been implemented for the past 50 years. Having been involved in work related to the Early Warning Systems on slope disaster for over ten years as an engineer of disaster-prevention technology in Japan, I am quite concerned that slope disasters could happen here as well if proper measures are not undertaken to educate people on the tell-tale signs of a possible landslide.

Kuala Lumpur has some high possibilities for landslides to occur within the residential areas especially on slopes and hilly terrains. The unfortunate tragedy of the Highland Tower which happened in 1993 was an example. The incident can be attributed to the influence of a geological condition of which weathering has an impact on the ground. The geological conditions of hilly terrains in Kuala Lumpur consist of hard rocks which had been formed during the Palaeozoic era and the Mesozoic era.

But, under the influences of weathering specific to tropical regions, the surface layer of the thickness of approximately 30 metres in most hilly areas hides its weakness. Also, the infiltration due to heavy rain occurring every day in rainy season could lead to weathering much more. The above mention has been revealed through the researches of Malaysian institutes such as the Southeast Asian Disaster Prevention Research Initiative of University Kebangsaan Malaysia. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for us to investigate exactly the complex influences of weathering in deep ground despite having the newest technologies presently.

In addition, the land development on hilly areas in Kuala Lumpur where the increase of population is quite remarkable would be unavoidable. Facing the above situations, for the residential people who live along hilly areas in Kuala Lumpur to save their lives in the event of a landslide, it would be necessary to do the following:

Firstly, to recognise that the potential risk of landslide in hilly terrains could exist.

Secondly, to pay attention to the change of environment around your residential area and make efforts of early detection by observing cracks and sinkholes on the ground or groundwater springs out from the soil after a heavy downpour.

Thirdly, to report these to the relevant authorities and experts related to disasters such as JKR, and to monitor carefully the change of mass movement of land.

Residents must also know the evacuation procedures and it is important to share the basic information of slope disaster prevention and mitigation between residents, authorities and the experts. I would like share my experience about slope disaster prevention and mitigation in Japan and my recent activities with residents and city councils in Malaysia.

In Japan, an Act related to landslide prevention and mitigation came into force about 20 years ago. The Act had local governments designate the hazardous areas prone to landslide and make announcements to the residents. The rainfall observation network system in Japan has been developed by the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the rainfall data given by the system have been communicated to people through the mass media. Despite having this in place, in Hiroshima City in Japan, massive debris flows occurred two years ago killed 70 persons.

One of the causes for this was that the disaster occurred before the information disclosure of the hazardous areas from the local government. If they had received the information prior, they would have evacuated earlier at the time when the heavy rainfall was forecasted.

As a result of the Hiroshima disaster, various workshops and community meetings were held with the residential people to learn about the hazards of living along hilly terrains. These activities and programmes can also be emulated in Malaysia.

SlopeWatch which is a well-known NGO in Malaysia, have been conducting awareness activities of slope disasters for some time now. As such, a new community initiative about slope disaster prevention and mitigation started with some Bukit Antarabangsa residents in collaboration with the NGO, MPAJ in Selangor. This must be lauded and supported by the general public.

These activities include a workshop of where residents can learn about the hazard information regarding their residential surroundings, the sharing of rainfall data and information of the hazardous areas by using the method of cloudsourcing. This method is crucial for warning residents and informing them on evacuation at realtime using a special app which has been developed.

For supporting these activities and developing the app, we have offered our technologies and experiences such as a monitoring system for rainfall at the community level and some know-how of sharing geological risk information as well.

A local IT company has developed the App to share the information of landslide hazard areas and rainfall data from our rainfall monitoring system by using our geographic information system.

This App can also combined easily the Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) for monitoring landslide disasters which are installed at various sites and buildings where it issues warnings based on the system’s monitoring.

The LEWS is a common system in Japan, generally being introduced by local governments with the help of geotechnical consultancy companies and offering the early warning information of movement of ground and buildings to residential people via mobile and emails.

If the App and the LEWS are used in Malaysia, it could assist residents to better understand landslides and avoid catastrophes such as the Highland Tower’s tragedy.

Kuala Lumpur has the geological risk of possible landslides due to heavy downpours on a regular basis. On the other hand, Kuala Lumpur as an international city will be required to keep its sustainable development corresponding to the Malaysian economic growth. Therefore, it is imperative that information and matters relating to disasters especially landslides be effectively communicated to the residents to prevent the loss of lives when disaster strikes.

* Mitsure Yabe is an engineer with experience working with the Early Warning Systems on slope disaster for over ten years as an engineer of disaster-prevention technology in Japan.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.