Penang Forum, a coalition of public-interest civil society groups, said it is upset over the failure of the authorities to prevent the landslide today at the Jalan Bukit Kukus paired road project site which has claimed three lives so far.

Penang Forum member Lim Mah Hui said nature had issued a warning last week when 14 concrete beams, each measuring 25m, crashed onto a hillslope but no action was taken.

"We do not know what actually happened here but certainly it shows the risk involved when you tamper with nature. Now we know that our monitoring capacity is so weak and this should serve as a wake-up call for the state government and they should not continue to say it is a construction site accident after this," he told reporters after visiting the scene of the landslide at Paya Terubong.

A landslide occurred today at the construction site of the RM545-million Jalan Bukit Kukus paired road linking Paya Terubong to Relau, that killed three people, injured one person and buried alive at least nine people.

Lim said the incident happened exactly a year after the landslide at the Tanjung Bungah construction site that buried 11 construction workers.

However, Lim's colleague Kam Suan Pheng, a soil scientist, said the soil erosion at Jalan Bukit Kukus is not something new as the matter has been raised with the authorities three years ago.

She said Penang Forum, through its Penang Hill Watch group, a platform for the public to complain about illegal hill clearing, submitted two reports to the Penang Island City Council (MBPP).

She said the MBPP responded by saying that this is a road construction project and they are monitoring the works.

"If they are monitoring the situation, how could this incident happen today? The soil here has been exposed and covering the soil with only a plastic sheet will not stop the erosion when it rains," she said.

The following is a series of landslides which occurred in Penang in 2017 and 2018:

Sept 21, 2017: Penang was hit by flash floods and heavy rain causing landslides and trees toppling in Jalan Tun Sardon-Jalan Bukit Baru, Paya Terubong resulting in the closure of several main roads to Balik Pulau and George Town.

Oct 21, 2017: A landslide struck an affordable housing project construction site in Lengkok Lembah Permai, Tanjung Bungah at about 8.57am. The incident took the lives of 11 workers comprising a local, five Bangladeshis, two Indonesians, two Myanmar and a Pakistani when they were buried by earth from the landslide on a hillside.

Nov 5, 2017: Continuous rain for almost 17 hours coupled with strong winds caused dozens of roads to be closed to traffic, while thousands of houses were inundated, hundreds of trees fell and landslides in several areas with the loss of seven lives.

More than 100 landslides occurred at Penang Hill, causing the railway service to the peak to be closed for a month.

Jan 5, 2018: Heavy rain caused flash floods in 50 areas in the state as well as a landslide at a pepper farm in Tanjung Bungah, resulting in the evacuation of four people due to the landslide.

Oct 11, 2018: Heavy rain and strong winds brought down 14 concrete beams measuring 25 m each along to collapse on the hillside at the Bukit Kukus project.

Oct 19, 2018: Rain lasting more than 10 hours resulted in a landslide at the Bukit Kukus project site for the paired road construction site linking Paya Terubong to Relau. More than 10 victims are feared to be buried alive so far, two bodies have been retrieved.

– Bernama