In light of “multiple disasters” hitting Penang, it also urged for independent reviews of the PTMP project to be conducted.

C4 said the incident was also a wake-up call to reconsider hill side developments, even if these were for the benefit of the public.

“This incident has proved that the council and state authorities are not competent and able to monitor or ensure that the project can be carried out without any incident or tragedies.

“If the state cannot be trusted to ensure a project of a smaller scale is incident free, how would it ensure the safety of a mega project such as the PTMP, especially when many concerns including, landslides, the care of explosive materials, the construction which is close to the dam and fault lines had been raised?”

C4 said in a statement today, signed by executive director Cynthia Gabriel and northern region coordinator Sudhagaran Stanley, the Bukit Kukus, Paya Terubong, incident, which has so far claimed nine lives, could have been avoided.

“This incident and others in the past such as the one that claimed the lives of 11 people on Oct 21, 2017 in Tanjung Bungah proves the incompetency of the local council and state authorities in monitoring hill slope developments in Penang.

“The Bukit Kukus incident affirms the consequences of bad management practices both by the council and contractor and lack of independent consultation. We should not allow this to be repeated in the PTMP project.”

C4 said action must be taken to address the “incompetency of the local council”.

“There should be no cover up and those responsible, contractors, council staff, engineering officials that failed to carry out their duties should be held accountable. The state should also ensure proper compensation is awarded to the victims and their families, especially for those without documentation and insurance. These workers had died due to human failure and not Mother Nature.”

Questions and issues raised by C4 regarding the Bukit Kukus tragedy include:

• What mitigating action had been taken by the council and developers to address the concerns of a landslide?
• Why was no stop work order issued when the authorities found irregularities at Bukut Kukus on Oct 8, including the absence of geotextile sheets which are used to reinforce and protect cut slopes?
• It is a shame that the state government and council were working with a contractor who had hired undocumented workers. The government should now conduct an investigation into all other government projects and check if the workers in those projects are documented and covered by insurance.
• The employer is now denying that the dead victims were working for them. The fact that the dead were from many countries and had been living at the site, proves that they were workers involved in the project.
• The state government should explain the claim by disaster mitigation and land erosion management expert Prof Dr Habibah Lateh from Universiti Sains Malaysia that the soil used at the construction was not suitable and friable. Clearly there seems to be expert evidence here that points to bad decisions being made and cost-cutting measures implemented at the expense of risk and compliance.