No where else but along the North-South Expressway can you see the widespread, wanton destruction to our natural beauty. Whether you are travelling from north to south or in the opposite direction, you cannot but feel an outrage at the company or companies that are simply gnawing away at our hills for commercial gain. You'll see these sights near the Ipoh South Toll Plaza.
Who is going to take responsibility for allowing this destruction to occur? The companies are blasting away the hills to recover the granite or limestone or marble because there are consumers who want to buy them! If there is no demand, there will be no supply. So are the consumers to blame?
Or does the responsibility lie with the companies involved with the blasting? Do they see commercial gain in the rocks that are beneath the top soil of the hills? When you travel along this stretch of the expressway, you are either silent with rage or dumbstruck with awe. Take your pick. It makes little difference. Or do you care at all about the destruction?
Maybe, the responsibility lies ultimately with the Perak state government. Why are they allowing this to happen right in front of everyone? The land is everyone's heritage; why allow it to be destroyed? Perhaps the approval was given a long time ago. But why wasn't there a constant monitoring of the work that was going around these hills? Is the government helpless? Are their hands tied? Is the government so insensitive towards everything? Are the authorities looking the other way? It took eons for the land to form in its natural beauty but it takes just one blast to open up a wound.
And this is the grand-daddy of all the blast sites - an enormous cliff of exposed marble. I guess the consumers, the companies and the government are hardly concerned about this. But ... what about the residents of Ipoh themselves? Has any concerted effort been made to stop the activities?
And this is evidence that the blasts are still on-going. Puffs of smoke that linger behind with every additional cutting away of the hills around Ipoh. If the residents and environmental activists are not playing their parts, then I suppose there is nothing more to say. Best of luck to the people of Ipoh. You really got what you voted for: a government that cares two hoots for the conservation of the environment.
Environmental conservation has yet to be made a true priority by the govt.; I have yet to hear any politician trumpeting it on their political agenda amidst all the promises of development, development, development.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, they never say, at what expense?
Sometimes it seems as though the authorities only take action when TV3's Karam Walia Singh says something on the evening news. If no one says anything, then it's business as usual, ie. begging the rakyat to wave the flag...
Until SOMETHING happens, eg. the express bus crash, or in this case, a landslide, which will throw everyone in a tizzy, and for people at the top to start banging for heads to roll... until the furore dies down & it's back to business as usual: begging the rakyat to fly that flag.