Bukit Antarabangsa Landslide: Implications, Mitigation, and Analysis

This essay provides a detailed analysis of the Bukit Antarabangsa Landslide that occurred in Malaysia on December 6, 2008. It examines the background of the event, including its location, casualties, and comparison to the Highland Towers disaster. The essay delves into the contributing factors of the landslide, such as design and planning flaws, construction process deficiencies, and inadequate long-term maintenance. It explores the implications of the landslide on the economy, politics, community, environment, and legal aspects. The essay also discusses the mitigation efforts undertaken by concerned agencies and the challenges faced in addressing the aftermath. Furthermore, it offers suggestions for preventing future landslides, including amending laws, improving council accountability, and enhancing public awareness through educational initiatives. The analysis includes references to the economic, social, and political ramifications of the disaster, providing a comprehensive understanding of the event and its consequences.

BUKIT ANTARABANGSA LANDSLIDE
Name
Institutional Affiliation

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BUKIT ANTARABANGSA LANDSLIDE
1. Background
The landslide took place on 6/12/2008 in Bukit Antarabangsa in Malaysia. It is believed
that the landslide buried fourteen bungalows in the Taman Bukit Utama and Taman Bukit
Mewah. It took place at around 4 AM MST and caused fifteen casualties alongside four deaths.
The disaster happened about 1.50km from the Highland Towers landslide area that occurred on
11/12/1993. This landslide claimed the lives of the people of Malaysia and significantly
destroyed the properties in the wee hours of the above-mentioned date and time in the year 2008.
It was indeed an eerier reminder of another landslide which happened in Highland Tower in the
year 1993. The chronology of this tragedy can be explained in order to understand it properly.
On 6/12/‘08, Malaysia got surprised by this landslide disaster occurring at Taman Bukit,
Mewah in Bukit Antarabangsa. This catastrophe killed four people and destroyed some fourteen
bungalows. It occurred around 3.30 AM.1 As a result of this tragedy, between 3000 and 5000
residents lost connection following the burying of the major route for exit. All the fatalities in
this case stood subsequently relocated to the recovery center.
Prior to the occurrence of this incidence, two siblings were buried in Kuala Kubu Bharu
by landslide following the crashing of their building at Ulu Yam Perdana, on 30/11/2008. Eleven
cars were also buried in a second incident on 4/12/2008 in Pusat Bandar Damansara. The latest
incident thus took place only around 1.5km from the Highland Towers’ disaster that killed 48
people on 11/12/1993. The rescue teams that encompassed 800 officers alongside members
1 Prasana, Rosaline Fernandez, Lean, Mei, Li, and Khor, Yoke Lim. “Media Coverage: The Bukit
Antarabangsa Landslide.” The Journal of The South East Asia Research Centre for
Communication and Humanities, Vol 5. No. 1, pp. 33-55, 2013.

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directed by Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar, Selangor chief officer were able to find 4 bodies in this
incident. These victims included N Yogeswary (40-years); Ng Yee Peng (30-years) and Shaifu
Khas Shahrudin (20-years).
The contributing factors of this landslide can also be understood in order to comprehend how it
can be mitigated. The first factor is design and planning. The slope failure is able to take place
because of the bad practice in regards to both soil and site investigations alongside lack of
engineers’ competence besides geology’s knowledge in the area. Thus, the construction of
condominium at Bukit Antarabangsa falls short of the standards besides being supervised by
incompetent and untrained personnel. 2
The second factor is the construction process which lacks inclusive accountability for the
entire project development undertaken by the engineers. No supervision exist in regards to
cutting as well as filling besides undesired of dumping debris at the phase of construction. There
is so much being left under the control of these unsupervised or even indecorously supervised
contractors that often seek to curtail the costs at the expense of the bad practices on construction
at hillside project development. 3
2 Quraishi, Iqbal, Abul Hasnat, and J. Paul Choudhury. "Selection of optimal pixel
resolution for landslide susceptibility analysis within the Bukit Antarabangsa, Kuala
Lumpur, by using image processing and multivariate statistical tools." EURASIP Journal
on Image and Video Processing 2017, no. 1 (2017): 21.
3 Gariano, S.L. and Guzzetti, F., 2016. Landslides in a changing climate. Earth-Science
Reviews, 162, pp.227-252.

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The third factor is long-term maintenance which is lacking even during the heavy rain s
when incidents of landslide remain triggered by the ingress of water into the slopes and erosion
of soil. Thus, to deter ingress as well as soil erosion, these slopes were made normally to have
drainage provisions alongside protective surfacing. Thus, there is a need for regular maintenance
to make sure their drainage system performed is not hampered. Buried water-carrying services
might result in landslide in case of leakage and such, therefore, should further be maintained.
The maintenance phase must be addressed appropriately by the novel statute. Currently, the local
authorities lack the required finance to maintain hills slopes and the responsible department
which run a yearly RM405M allocation that funds service of more than 500 workers of which
200 are engineers managing these hill slopes.
Upon the investigation, it was found that the immediate cause of the landslide was the
leakage of water-pipe from the pipeline which ran along neglected house row. The technical
committee Landslide probe discovered that it triggered the content of water in the slope soil to
increase and hence triggering the landslide. The Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (Chief Minister)
indicated that the tragedy occurred because of no maintenance, alongside the drainage system
damage in this slope site and the often rain prior to the happenings about 2008 in months of
October and November.
2. Implications on the following
2.1 Economy
The economy was negatively affected by the landslide. Many properties were destroyed
by the tragedy despite people having spent a lot of money in their development. Further, they
people lost the money which would have otherwise accrue from the rentals in case such
bungalows were rented out. The revenue from these destroyed properties were lost meaning that

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the government taxes were reduced which would otherwise fueled the economy. The landslide
also led to the stoppage of ongoing constructions in the areas which mean that there was a cut-
down on economy in terms purchase of materials and also payment of workers. 4
2.2 Politics
The landslide painted the members of parliament and the government as weak entities
who do care for the plight of the locals. Members of parliament were blamed for the occurrence
of this landslide due to their failure to make stringent laws which can ensure that all the
precautions are taken before undertaking the development project in the area. Also, they were
blamed for the failure to remove the immunity protections which would otherwise make the
council members liable if they fail to undertake proper inspections. The government on the other
hand was impacted because of the loss of revenue and hence believed for not protecting its
citizens who had no knowledge about the landslide and how to evacuate. The government was
blamed because it did not provide the laws and regulations which would have ensured that
engineers and constructors undertake due diligence when developing these slopes.5
2.3 Community/Social
4 Donnini, Marco, Elisabetta Napolitano, Paola Salvati, Francesca Ardizzone, Francesco
Bucci, Federica Fiorucci, Michele Santangelo, Mauro Cardinali, and Fausto Guzzetti.
"Impact of event landslides on road networks: a statistical analysis of two Italian case
studies." Landslides 14, no. 4 (2017): 1521-1535.
5 Winter, Mike G., Barbara Shearer, Derek Palmer, David Peeling, Clare Harmer, and
Jonathan Sharpe. "The economic impact of landslides and floods on the road
network." Procedia engineering 143 (2016): 1425-1434.

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The community faced a lot losses in terms of properties and the death and injury to the
loved ones. Those who lost their loved ones were subjected to unending trauma. The victims also
suffered great pain due to their injuries. The people who lost their properties were negatively
affected as they lost their money which had been pumped into these property development. The
stoppage of constructions in the area following the landslide also meant loss of income to
community workers who were employed in these projects. The community also lost in general as
their properties got destroyed, friends, families and relatives losing their loved ones and getting
injured.6
2.4 Environment
The landslide caused massive destruction on the beautiful environment due to the effects
of landslides. The main exit route was blocked and this was a major problems to the people who
were using this route. The erosion and the subsequent landslide was catastrophic to the
environment. 7
2.5 Legal
6 Mertens, Kewan, Liesbet Jacobs, Jan Maes, Clovis Kabaseke, Miet Maertens, Jean
Poesen, Matthieu Kervyn, and Liesbet Vranken. "The direct impact of landslides on
household income in tropical regions: A case study from the Rwenzori Mountains in
Uganda." Science of the total environment 550 (2016): 1032-1043.
7 Kennedy, Iain TR, Dave N. Petley, Richard Williams, and Virginia Murray. "A
systematic review of the health impacts of mass Earth movements (landslides)." PLoS
currents 7 (2015).

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The occurrence of the landslide proved that there were no good laws to govern the
constructions in the area. This promoted the need for more new laws to be enacted to prevent
future occurrence of such events. The landslide put the existing Acts of parliament in spotlight
and questioned their effectiveness including:
 Federal territory planning act 1982
 The environmental quality act 1974 or Act 127) and subsidiary legislations
 The national land code, the land conservation act
 The street drainage and building act 1974 or Act 133
 Town and county planning act (1976) or Act 172
3. Mitigation Efforts by Agencies Concerned
The Penang Municipal Council subsequently issued an order (stop-work) on the
bungalow projects in Batu Ferringhi following the assessments which revealed that such a
project never constructed project drainage. The local authority ordered for the probe to know the
immediate cause of the tragedy and presented the report to the Chief Minister who indicated that
it was due to leaking pipes which was left in the abandoned house. This report was used to
inform the subsequent interventions including the need for stringent laws to guide the
constructions. The agency made a decision to ensure proper maintenance of the drainage system
and construct retentions walls in the area.
4. Challenges
The landslide triggered a more or less unthinking reaction by Prime Minister Datuk Serri
Abdullah Badawi who subsequently avowed the instant halt to all the hill slope development
projects. The statement of the Premier, at best, would solely place on hold any continuing project

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for 30-days awaiting the probe into their safety in the area. However, it was absolutely not
feasible to halt such projects indefinitely.
This is because all the development permit which had already been issued to these
developers already went via the necessary processes and procedures. This included all the safety
precautions, suggested by engineering alongside architectural specialists that mist be in place as
development portion. The challenge might never due to plans of the developers, however, in
work monitoring which need to be undertaken by local authority officials. This bears in
memorizing further that occasionally, to lower costs, these developers never undertake what is
outlined in such plans. This explains the reason local councils should strictly as well as
frequently inspect such work places to make sure everything is as per the requirements. 8
Even if this law is changed as demanded, that alone would never be the panacea to the
predicament being encountered. As stated by the Justice in the case of Highland Towers, when
the council was take liability, it would even open a floodgate for additional claims “the project
shall fail.” The local council might go bust and even where it does not, it is never just, fair and
reasonable that the cash of the taxpayers remain utilized in paying the “debts” of such people.
Another challenge is the competency and responsibility level of the local council’s
employees. However, for this to ensue, the state government has to find the will of sacking or at
least transferring out officer who are found incompetent and corrupt, and further promote or hire
trustworthy and competent officers. However, this is a challenge because it would be possible in
the setting in which meritocracy is applied.
8 Kazmi, Danish, Sadaf Qasim, and I. S. H. Harahap. "Evaluation of the causes of Bukit
Antarabangsa 2008 landslide by using fault tree analysis." In MATEC web of conferences, vol.
138, p. 04009. EDP Sciences, 2017.

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Pending the adequate tackling of such challenges or issues, the government of Selangor
has put a full prohibition on development of Class 3 as well as Class 4 slopes. This further does
not curtail development Class 1& 2 developments, and the current permitted projects before
these changes in states government after the elections of 8 March.
5. Suggestions
It is suggested that where the council officials were neglectful and never bothered to
review the progress of these development work in details from the beginning to the end, it is
required that the local council individuals need to remain liable for such negligence. However,
section 95(2) of Street, Drainage, and Building Act 1974 must be amendeded to remove the
immunity to this council from lawsuits because of such apparent negligence as was the case in
Highland Towers’ case judgment. There is also a need for the elected representatives in
Parliament to amend this section of the law on immunity because they have always maintained
the status quo despite the numerous calls to amend this section. As has been rightly put by
Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, that amongst the fundamental challenges with
development of property is the failure to consider the surrounding areas, there is a need for the
local council to have additional encompassing approach before any project gets approval.
The government should adopt some effective problem-solving techniques to solve this
problem. This paper recommends that the government should look at the economic aspect of
such landslide and respond by upgrading on the knowledge of natural phenomena to the
community via media like seminar, and internet. Such steps will ensure the public has desired
information about landslide and hence making the locals to known few new things about
landslide and how they can deal with them in case of occurrence to minimize casualties. The
government should further provide additional expertise to prevent such a tragedy in a proactive

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manner and this should also be accompanied by the government holding campaigns for locals to
partake. Thus, the locals will significantly gain knowledge on such an issue. The government can
also must also provide certain expenditures on wall-retentions specifically susceptible areas to
landslide and spend heavily on such wall retentions by building and reconstructing novels ones.
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In regards to the social aspects, the locals must understand as well as apply their
knowledge regarding the incidence of landslide. They should be conscious of their zones while
the administration must deliver desired knowledge regarding landslide and have the residents
take the required safety measure around their respective property. The locals should learn
regarding the emergence-responses as well as plans for evacuation when landslide occurs which
is the most significant way to prepare in such incidences as it allows the survivors to distinguish
places to evacuate, whether or not to remain with respective families.
In regards to environmental aspect, the landslide can be prevented by ensuring that the
experts have the desired knowledge regarding the properties to be built. For example, the experts
must understand environment of these areas specifically the types of rocks and profile of the
soils. Thus, every contractor must have expertise as advisors when building the houses. The
landslide can also be environmentally be prevented by planting ground cover on these slopes to
reinforce the slopes with additional roots hence helping prevent occurrence of landslide. 10
9 Kazmi, Danish, Sadaf Qasim, I. S. H. Harahap, and Thu Hang Vu. "Analytical study of
the causes of the major landslide of Bukit Antarabangsa in 2008 using fault tree
analysis." Innovative Infrastructure Solutions 2, no. 1 (2017): 55.
10 Ismail, Noer El Hidayah, Samsudin Hj Taib, and Fildzah Anati Mohd Abas. "Slope
monitoring: an application of time-lapse electrical resistivity imaging method in Bukit

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In regards to infrastructural aspects, there government must provide relief centers for all
the victims in cases where victims do have a place to live. Technology warnings like satellite
images from methodological stations should be utilized to warn the locals regarding weather
specifically in the periods of heavy rainfall (Kazmi, Qasim & Harahap, 2017).
6. Conclusion
The main actual issues arising from this case is that no supervision existed over both
filling and cutting and debris’ dumping and that the engineers do not take overall responsibilities
for the entire project development in the area. The conceptual issues arising from the case is that
resolve by the engineers on meaning of concepts and terms and the specific issues include
meagre practices in regards to soil and site probe and also incompetence engineers, alongside
lack of knowledge of erosion risks, geology alongside hydrology. The moral issues is to be
resolve via negotiation and applications of the appropriate ethical theories. The specific moral
issues from this case is that so much was under the control of inadequately supervised or
unsupervised constructor that often sought to lower costs at the expense of bad practices during
the construction for the hillside development.
Therefore, there is a need for the different stakeholders to take charger and remain
responsibility to prevent such incidences from further occurring. The local authority must always
probe and report all the hill slope projects which fall short of the safety criteria while the
government should have insurance companies engaged to cover the risks of landslide, flooding,
soil erosion as well as residential property. The engineers or single engineer must become
appointed to take full responsibilities for the whole project, design as well as construction of the
Antarabangsa, Kuala Lumpur." Environmental earth sciences 78, no. 1 (2019): 14.

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hillside development. The management must properly undertake layout plans approval and
further provide the cost incurred in maintain the hillside.
It is, therefore, unethical for such tragedy to occur because they trigger lots of challenges
to any kind of people or project. Thus, engineers must apply all the ethical code and utilize code
of conduct as their guidelines when constructing to protect himself and other people. All
engineers have to remain careful and understand the dimension s and the impacts of their
profession.
Bibliography
Donnini, Marco, Elisabetta Napolitano, Paola Salvati, Francesca Ardizzone, Francesco Bucci,
Federica Fiorucci, Michele Santangelo, Mauro Cardinali, and Fausto Guzzetti. "Impact of