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Pave paradise to put up 800 parking bays in Youth Park

Accountability, Development issues, Environment 25 Responses »

Nov 302008

Canadian song-writer Joni Mitchell felt compelled to write the song “Big Yellow Taxi” when during a visit to Hawaii she took a taxi to a hotel and peered out of the hotel room window the next morning. She described what she saw to journalist Alan McDougall:

… I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.

The line “Paved paradise to put up a parking lot” could well describe what we are doing to our Pearl of the Orient, which is rapidly turning into one big parking lot.

“Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…”

Now I have stumbled onto plans to put up 800 parking bays at the Penang Youth Park. 800?! Are they out of their minds? We have such limited recreational areas and parks – and they can think of putting up 800 parking bays? Someone, please tell me it’s all a misunderstanding…

I got this information from an official-sounding website Adun PP Net. This is what it says:

Something’s going on at the Botanic Gardens

Accountability, Development issues, Environment 28 Responses »

Nov 222008

Eco-stream or eco-tampering? (The view looking towards Coronation Camp)

Thanks to the blog reader who sent me the above pics.

In case you are wondering what’s going on at the Penang Botanic Gardens, the pictures above show the “Eco-Stream Walk” under construction.

The is one of four new “attractions” in the pipeline, the others being a bambusetum (a bamboo park), a garden mall and a water garden. (What’s a ‘garden mall’ and a ‘water garden’? These will be just outside the present entrance.) Work is due to finish in 2010.

The “Eco-Stream Walk” will be 300 metres long, following the stream from the nursery in the Gardens to a parking area near Waterfall Road.

They are also building a ‘Tourist Pavilion’ opposite the Horticulture Centre – gallery, souvenir shops and information booths. (More concrete in the gardens?) Wouldn’t one information booth suffice?

In a future phase, a bamboo village will be added.

Why not, when you have RM7 million funding from the Tourism Ministry under the Ninth Malaysia Plan? Let’s build some “attractions”. After all, we can’t stand seeing open green recreational spaces around. We must “develop” them.

More environmental concerns

Development issues, Environment, Malaysian finance/business 9 Responses »

Oct 172008

The last two postings on the environment appear to have struck a chord among some of you:

Blog reader Adam and the Ants says the problem isn’t confined to Penang:

The whole country for that matter is being raped. Try coming down to Seremban, it’s even worse. Nobody cares.

Orangutan in Perak is concerned about the waste discharge from a coal power plant:

The coal power plant in Manjung, Perak is flushing million of tons of sulphate, nitrate, chlorine oxide residue, and other toxic waste into the sea for the last five yeras. All this waste can have a damaging effect on the sea and the environment…. Tons of sea water is used and sent back polluted. This plant has another 20 to 25 years to go. Think what can further happen to the sea by then.

Over in Pahang, Phua Kai Lit is appalled:

In my hometown of Kuantan, the hill (Bukit Pelindung) near the beautiful Teluk Cempedak beach is being deforested step by step.

Some of the culprits (appear to be) government agencies that build offices and housing for their staff!

Andrew shares with us his experience of the floods in Penang:

I experienced the (floods) on the way back from Chulia Street to Gelugor after supper.

Just like a scene out of “The day after tomorrow”, the roads were filled with angry rushing water. Poor motorcyclists were being splashed full bodiedly by passing cars.

Continue reading »

Penang, paradise lost…

Development issues, Environment 6 Responses »

Oct 162008

Here are more telling signs of the worsening environmental situation in Penang. Time we woke up and did something about it.

Blog-reader Steve Oh shares with us what Penang was once like:

Anyone who knows Penang will tell you it is such a beautiful island with an alluring and rare charm that even beguiled Somerset Maugham the novelist, who spent time there. But take a drive along its unique sinuous coastal road round the island and you will see how the poor island has suffered a tortuous existence since development hit the island. It is like Cinderella ill-treated. The Pearl has lost its lustre, and without its blue seas, perhaps greenish at ground level, it has lost its natural appeal.

I inspected a beachside property and was aghast to see several illegal houses built of concrete and zinc roofs that had been there for some time right smack on the beach in front of it. And you can even find illegal food shops on some beaches! You wonder where all the sewage go. There are big open monsoon drains that flow into the sea and you can find some beside those beautiful hotels. Do they seriously want people to swim in the sea? Ask a silly question! Sigh.

Yes, we remember our childhood days on the beaches of Penang. We used to dig for siput at Gurney Drive. They were plentiful and you could play on the sand and the water was typically Penang but not as crystal clear as the sea at Muka Head but still relatively unpolluted.

The rape of Penang’s natural heritage will not stop until Penangites themselves mobilise to stop the rot. The new government has a challenge on its hands but it is a challenge that requires every Penangite to feel a sense of ownership and chip in.

Mut recalls what it was like fishing off the coast of Penang:

Even in the early 80s we could still find nice sandy beaches; for me, the srtongest signal that something was going wrong came when fishing trips yielded worse catches.

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What happened to the blue waters of Penang?

Development issues, Environment 19 Responses »

Oct 162008

Ever been in a plane and looked down carefully at the sea around Penang?

These satellite images paint a thousand words. Look at the mess around the island and mainland. And take a careful look at the colour of the rivers leading to the sea. Black. Siltation and pollution. Ugh!

Now, would you really want to swim in these waters? You can see the contrast between the murky waters around Penang and the deep bluish green hues of the Andaman Sea farther north leading up to the breathtaking islands of south Thailand.

Is this the price we have to pay for industrialisation and ‘progress’? Is this an acceptable price, do you think? Who is to blame for this? Industry (untreated discharges that flow into the sea)? Property developers (hill-cutting that leads to siltation and sedimentation)? Lack of effective sewage and effluent treatment plants? Government (for its ‘pro-business policies’ that fail to take into consideration compliance with tight enivironmental regulations and standards)? Or all of the above?

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