Fatal landslide at campsite near Genting Highlands is ‘unprecedented’ in Malaysia, says geology expert

SINGAPORE: A landslide like the fatal incident on Friday (Dec 16) at a campsite near Genting Highlands did not happen immediately after heavy rainfall and is “unprecedented” in Malaysia, said an expert.

Geology expert Dr Nor Shahidah Mohd Nazer said it was likely to have been partly an effect of intense rain during the past weeks as the country experiences its monsoon season.

Such a landslide is called an earthflow, said Dr Shahidah, a senior lecturer in the Department of Earth Science and Environment at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

“Earthflow is ... a type of landslide that comes with a lot of water and the composition of the slide, or the slope itself, consists of high fine-grained material which is able to absorb more water and also doesn’t allow water to pass easily,” she told CNA’s Asia Now.

“Under this condition, the slope gets saturated, and it will induce the formation of slip surfaces deep inside the ground.”

Such a deep-seated landslide will travel far because it has velocity due to its semi-fluid behaviour, she added.

“With the continuous wetting to the same slope, it gets weakened and then, in a short period of time, it can travel downwards as what we experienced today,” she said.

At least 21 people are dead after the landslide at the Father's Organic Farm campsite in the town of Batang Kali, Selangor.

Malaysia's local government development ministry said 61 people have been found safe, out of 94 people caught in the landslide. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing.

ACTIVELY SEARCHING FOR MORE SURVIVORS

Mr Hakim Hamzah, secretary-general of the Malaysian Red Crescent Society, shed light on some of the challenges faced by organisations such as his, which are involved in search and rescue operations.

When the incident happened in the wee hours of Friday, it was dark, making it hard to find out what had happened and which areas needed to be searched, he said.

The mission got easier with daylight, he added.

“We are now actively looking at the search area and identifying which of them have survived the landslide and providing the required assistance in terms of medical aid, and psychosocial support,” he told CNA’s Asia Now.

Some of the victims are in shock and have suffered trauma, he said, adding that mental health support has been made available to them so they can recover from their experience.

Communication from the site has not been an issue, he said.

“As this is happening in not so much of a rural area, information about those who have survived and those who have been rescued from these rescue efforts is readily available to the family members,” he said.

“We hope for the best, to find more survivors from this landslide,” he added.

IMPROVING SAFETY

Dr Shahidah gave suggestions on what can be done to make the area safer, including investing more in putting up a strong and rigid structure that can sustain massive movement from the slope.

She added that the government needs to ramp up enforcement against illegal campsites, especially those at the toe of slopes as they may bear the brunt of a landslide.

“Although the campsite itself does not diminish nature directly, the location and also the implementation of the site itself are far from sustainable,” she said.

The campsite operator at Father's Organic Farm did not have a valid licence to host such activities, Malaysia’s Local Government Development Minister Nga Kor Ming told reporters.

Dr Shahidah said: “We need to have strict rules to curb the trend where opportunists try to make money out of nature."

“Also we need to have a sound monitoring system that is able to give us the precursor warning or threshold once (there is) imminent danger,” she added.

While the risk of a landslide can be minimised, its occurrence is not entirely avoidable, she said. She noted that Malaysia is in a region that experiences wet and humid climate all year and that the country’s soil cover consists of thick residual soil.

“Soil is a loose part of rock - once it has been disintegrated, a small disturbance from water or even shaking could induce movement and this is what we experienced now,” she said.

Awareness is also important, Dr Shahidah said, noting that the Meteorological Department of Malaysia has warned residents and tourists of heavy rainfall.

“People need to take extra caution with this warning. Don’t simply go to an area that is prone to landslides,” she said.

People should find out the history of an area before deciding to go there, she added.

“When areas have evidence of ... landslides every year, it means that they are unstable in general,” she said.