Reclaimed areas off shore Penang in danger?

An artist’s impression of the three man-made islands measuring 1,821ha to be built under the Penang South Reclamation project.

Are reclaimed areas off shore Penang in danger from disasters, like flooding, and perhaps soil erosion over the longer term?

The disasters would occur within 20 to 40 years of the completion of the new areas, a development planning expert predicted.

High-rise buildings, especially, would be in danger due to ground instability on the newly created islands, the New Straits Times reported.

The state is embarking on a mega coastal reclamation project in the southern part of the island, which will see the creation of three man-made islands measuring 1,821ha.

“With rising sea levels, these newly reclaimed areas will be flooded," said Professor Emeritus Dr Hans-Dieter Evers of the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Over the past decade, experts had raised estimates on sea level rise due to climate change. Average temperatures had also risen, said Evers.

As a consequence, seawater in the oceans would expand as the polar ice caps melt, thereby increasing water in the ocean.

Evers said the predictions of seawater rise had increased from a few milimetres per year to an expected 4m by the end of this century.



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On when the disasters could strike, Evers said it depends on multiple factors like global warming, frequencies of extreme weather conditions, changes of ocean currents and carbon dioxide emissions.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had estimated a sea level rise of between 18cm and 59cm by 2099, but the latest report this year raised the estimate to between 56cm and 200cm, while some research institutes were reporting as high as 4m to 6m by the end of the millennium.

Several mega coastal reclamation projects had been planned in the state, including the proposed Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project off the southern coast of the island.

The Penang government recently obtained the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval for the project from the Department of Environment (DoE), which came with 72 conditions.

Other mega projects included the Seri Tanjung Pinang project in Tanjung Tokong and the Gurney Drive reclamation.

Statistics showed since 1988, at least 31 land reclamation projects had been approved nationwide, including the construction of 18 artificial islands.

The largest island reclamation so far is Forest City in Johor.


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