Land reclamation to build luxury homes in Penang worrying, says NGO
GEORGE TOWN, April 9, 2015:
A Penang environment awareness group here has slammed the state government for its insistence on reclaiming the middle bank of the Penang Channel despite it housing a seagrass bed, a vital component in the balance of the ecosystem.
Furthermore, the NGO expressed worry that the area that would be reclaimed was where a Tenaga Nasional submarine cable was located.
Penang Chant Citizens Awareness Group (Chant) coordinator Yan Lee reasoned that the large scale reclamation involving an area of 56 hectares would also involve a very high cost if it took place as the shifting of the TNB submarine cable would be costly.
“The cost involved will be very high to shift this cable and will it be allowed by TNB?
“The whole process will be a major undertaking,” he told a press conference here today.
He said inside sources revealed that there were no clear guidelines and plans on how the project would take place without tampering with the cable.
He also warned that any reclamation project carried out on the middle bank of the Penang Channel would cause severe damage to the state’s coastal environment and ecosystem.
“The proposed reclamation project would affect the seagrass bed, a vital component in the balance of the ecosystem.
“Seagrass is an ecosystem by itself.
“Any reclamation affecting seagrass area will severely disrupt the balance of the ecosystem and the coastal environment,” he said, adding that the state government should explain why it chose that seagrass bed in particular when it could have chosen another site.
The middle bank reclamation project, which would be carried out between the ferry terminal and the Penang Bridge, was part of the proposed RM27 billion Penang Transport Master Plan (TMP), a third of which covered the seagrass bed.
According to Lee, the Department of Environment (DOE) had already rejected a similar reclamation project under the proposed Forest City project in Johor.
“Why does the state government still insist on reclaiming the seagrass bed in the middle bank when there is already a DOE precedent rejecting such a project?”
Six companies had submitted tender bids to implement the TMP and the decision would be announced next month for a high end project in the area.
Lee also said that the state government had approved a land reclamation to build 600 units of high end homes and a few blocks of apartments in Tanjung Sri Pinang.
Before implementation, the selected company was required to conduct a feasibility study of the proposed project, earmarked just off the coast of Sungai Pinang in the southern part of the city.
SourceL http://www.therakyatpost.com/news/2015/04/09/land-reclamation-to-build-luxury-homes-in-penang-worrying-says-ngo/#ixzz3WpAJZfh1
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