Ministry awaits full report on Blue Valley landslide

 

Rescuers at the site of the landslide in the Blue Valley, Cameron Highlands, on Saturday. The bodies of all five victims were recovered. (JPAM pic)

BUTTERWORTH: The ministry of natural resources and environmental sustainability is awaiting a comprehensive report regarding last Friday’s landslide tragedy in Cameron Highlands, in which five people died.

The minister, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, said that the ministry needs to seriously address the incident to prevent its recurrence in the future. “The ministry needs to get a clear picture of the incident before taking further action,” he said.

He said information was being gathered by ministry officials, the local council and the state government.

The 2.30am landslide at Blue Valley, Cameron Highlands, buried alive five Myanmar nationals, including a woman, who worked on a vegetable farm. The five, who are accredited refugees, were asleep when the landslide occurred.

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 operating illegally for over a year and once seized by the forestry department last April, and the operator had also been previously detained. - FMT