While Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow had announced the temporary closure of campsites in the state, Penang Hills Watch (PHW) said this was merely a stop-gap measure.

“It is more critical to tackle the root cause of such disasters. To ensure slope safety in the long-run, it is imperative to constantly monitor and maintain slopes,” it said in a statement today.

PHW said guidelines issued by the state government in restricting and controlling developments on hills have not been enforced, leading to several incidents of landslides between 2017 and 2018.

This included the fatal October 2017 landslide at a construction site in Tanjung Bungah that saw a dozen workers killed, which the group said could have been avoided.

It also cited Jalan Tun Sardon, built in the early 1980s to improve access from the lower Paya Terubong valley to Balik Pulau, which was still fraught with slope failures and landslips.

“There are now modern technologies for effective and real-time monitoring of slope stability under differing rainfall conditions,” it said. “These technologies can produce data at differing resolutions for better identification of high landslide risk sites and the appropriate mitigation measures.”

PHW commended the Perak government for announcing that all high-risk slope areas were being monitored as a definitive measure for landslide prevention.

“Such a measure is even more imperative for Penang, given the higher density of population living closer to hilly terrain,” it said.

Ninety-two people were affected by the landslide at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite in Gohtong Jaya, near Batang Kali, in the early hours of last Friday.

Sixty-one have been rescued and 30 have died, while one victim is still unaccounted for.