Tuesday 16 June 2009

Can you build a golf course on a 30% slope?

I refer to the business article, YNH PLANS CONDO PROJECT ATOP GENTING HIGHLANDS from which I have extracted a statement made by the company, as follows:
Extract:...." The land that YNH bought is near the top where the temperature is around 15 to 16 degrees Celsius, he said. Although the land YNH bought is sizeable, only 30% to 40% is suitable for development as the slope on the rest is too steep. “We’ll use the rest of the land for a golf course and jungle trekking,”

I have to inform you that I am slightly confused by the Statement, which I presume is the truth. A responsible company like YNH will I think, be happy to clarify and elaborate on some of the issues that have confused me, arising from the statement, bulletized below:

  • If only 30% of the land is suitable for development, and the rest of the land is too steep, how do you propose to build the Golf course on the slopes? I am not a golf player, but I am an avid golf fan,(I even know that an "albatross" can only be achieved on a par 5 hole), and I wonder how do you play on Greens that are sloping? What about water hazards and ponds? How do you build water holes on slopes? How do you travel from one hole to the next? By Cable Car? If you have to 'level' the slopes for the greens, will you not be ACTUALLY destroying the slopes and even the Highlands itself?
  • By building on only the 30% of the available flat land, will you STILL NOT destroy the surrounding area, while you are "developing" it??
  • Was the land that YNH purchased previously part of the Pahang Forest Reserve, and if it were, when was it "declassified"?
  • Will there be an EIA study commissioned, and the Report made available to the authorities and to the Public, before the project is allowed to kick off?
I also regret to have raise these questions, but from a layman's point of view, it is difficult to visualize how such an area atop the Highlands can be developed so extensively without causing extensive and irrevocable damage to what little that we have left of out "heritage".

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