BUTTERWORTH, Jan 28 — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability is awaiting a comprehensive report regarding last Friday’s landslide tragedy in Cameron Highlands, Pahang, which resulted in five fatalities, before taking any further action.
Its minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said that his ministry needs to seriously address the incident to prevent its recurrence in the future.
“Regarding the latest incident in Cameron Highlands, the ministry (Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability) is awaiting a complete report and needs to get a clear picture of the incident before taking further action.
“The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability, along with other parties such as the Local Authority and the state government, is collecting information, and will inform on the immediate actions to be taken.
“At our ministry level, it involves geo-scientific minerals, forestry areas, and the environment. This matter needs to be taken seriously to prevent it from happening again in the future,” he told reporters here today.
Nik Nazmi, who is also Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) vice president, was met after opening the Keadilan Bagan division office in Taman Segar Jaya here today.
In the landslide incident, five Myanmar nationals, including a woman who worked on a vegetable farm, were buried alive after the victims’ house was involved in the landslide at around 2:40 am last Friday at Batu 59, Blue Valley, Cameron Highlands.
The identities of the five Myanmar nationals, who are also holders of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards, are Law Ha Phey, 36, Ki Shing Om, 39, Thang Moung, 25, Shing Law Har, 56, and Om Myu, 38, all of whom were sleeping during the incident.
Cameron Highlands District Officer, Syed Ahmad Khirulanwar Al-Yahya Syed Abdul Rahman was reported as saying that the approximately 4.31-hectare farm had been operated illegally for over a year and had been once been seized by the Forestry Department last April, and the operator had also been previously detained.
— Bernama
