The following article is pulled-out from Malay Mail
dated 15th June 2009 (Monday)
WITH three deaths from last week’s Kampung Pandan kite-flying tragedy still fresh in the minds of the public, residents of Taman Desa want the recently installed high tension power cables near their homes to be removed.
An action group has been formed and the group’s co-chairman Walter Chew claims that the installation — stretching a distance of 800m and about 30m away from some houses — was done without informing or consulting affected residents in the area.
“In the third quarter of last year, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) installed high tension cable towers right in the heart of Taman Desa and Taman Bukit Desa,” said Chew. He claimed the installation was done overnight.
“We were rudely greeted the next morning by the sight of these massive towers,” said another resident, Doreen Chan, 50. It is alleged there was never any notification, nor a signboard at the project site informing residents about the project.
“As TNB has not put up any signboards and didn’t send out any notification to the affected residents, we wonder if they had obtained the approval from the relevant authorities,” said Chew.
Residents have suggested that TNB use other methods like underground cabling instead of the overhead high tension cables.
“They could use the underground cables even though it would cost more. Why create a risk which can affect people’s lives?” asked Eugene Lee, 40, another Taman Desa resident.
The protest against TNB also has the support of the Taman Desa Residents’ Association, which represents the 30,000 residents of Taman Desa and Taman Bukit Desa
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the incident at taman desa is very much similar to one that i have personally encountered, in which i am the secretary of the resident association. would like to share this incident.
ReplyDeletebasically, there is this project by the local authority to construct a new hawker centre, taking the opened space that consists of foot reflexology walk way, seatings, tables and some GREENS.
what we've done were as follows :-
1. highlight in newspaper on the non-consultancy with local residents of the project.
2. write a full-length report (can call it memorandum or so) with pictures and group analysis on the impact of the hawker centre to its existing environment, the losing of opened space (used mainly by elderly as well as children), traffic congestion, insufficient car parking space and etc. MOST IMPORTANTLY, give alternative proposal to have win-win situation for all the parties (give and take).
3. submit the compilation of report to the relevant authority with signature of residents.
after a while, we were called for a meeting and a proper discussion was held between the relevant authority and the resident association.
a solution was proposed, in that the relevant authority re-provide some opened space at designated areas and assure of the congestion issue to be solved. one important condition that we have imposed to them was to allocate and re-build the facilities to the residents prior to commencement of construction for the hawker centre.
proper channel is to be adopted ... proper documentation (in black & white) must be prepared to justify claims and complaints ...
NGO, particularly resident association is of utmost important in this sort of case.
GOOD LUCK to residents at Taman Desa. hope a good satisfactory solution could be achieved.
Very good sharing, Yakuzanam. But instead of firefighting on these havoc created by the relevant party, can we think of a way to prevent the reoccurance?
ReplyDeleteAs we notice, there are never ending complaints about high tension power cables at residential areas. Personally, I think some legal procudures should be implemented and enforce to the relevant parties if there is any need to install high tension power cables, in order the protect the residents.
Cheers~
Technically speaking, high tension means high-voltage, close proximity parallel electrical conductors that can cause the surrounding air to ionize and conduct (seen as aura or spark).
ReplyDeleteOverhanging or embedded in dry ground, the electromagnetic radiation generated is still intense around the vicinity of the parallel conductors.
The proper solution would be to reduce the transmission voltage to 32kV with more parallel lines (more expensive) instead of using 132kV (2-redundant pairs of 3-phase lines).
Well, people think I'm a "far-fetched" guy so this comment is worth 2 cents or less :-(