KUCHING: Living too close to a quarry is extremely hazardous to anyone, what more for an elderly couple whose house is just a stone’s throw away from the Tapang Batu Quarry in Kampung Prutan near Siburan.
The couple’s residence is among the few houses located less than 200 metres from the foot of the Bukit Batu Tapang granite hill along the feeder road leading to Kampung Tanah Puteh and Kampung Endap.
One can only imagine how inconvenient it was for an old woman to push her wheelchair bound husband out of the house just to take cover every time blasting operation is in progress.
The couple’s agony has been ongoing almost weekly since the quarry started its operation last year.
One of the residents who requested anonymity revealed to The Borneo Post yesterday that the quarry blasting was usually done twice a week and on every occasion the company would issue an early warning to the affected residents.
“Among others, those whose houses were closest to the granite hill will be warned to leave their house and take cover before the blasting is done,” he said.
He said while it had been causing them great inconveniences, it was even worse for the elderly couple, as they would have to go out of their house for an hour from 11.30am to 12.30 noon.
“Imagine the elderly woman has to push her poor bedridden husband on a wheelchair for another 200 or 300 metres from their house. This is really torturing and we can expect that we will be facing this situation for as long as the quarry is in operation,” he said.
This resident, who is in his mid 50s, also told The Borneo Post that they were fully aware of the impact the quarry would cause once it was allowed to operate and because of that many of the villagers had objected to the opening of the quarry there.
“We even filed a complaint to the relevant authority, including the Natural Resources Environment Board (NREB) and the Land and Survey Department but it appeared that we had failed to stop the quarry operation.
“An NREB officer did come but what he told us was that the licence and permit to extract rocks and stones from the granite hill had been issued many years back, at least five years before I came to settle down there which was about five years ago,” he said.
He added that the licence therefore could have been issued about 10 years ago when there were still no houses within the area.
He disclosed that since the licence issued had possibly lapsed for so many years it was therefore only appropriate for the relevant government authorities to review the matter, instead of blaming them for moving in there and putting them at risk.
“We should not be blamed for building our houses there in the first place because when we moved in no one ever informed us about the plan to operate a quarry.
“In actual fact it is the quarry operation that should not be approved since the granite hill has already become a settlement area. The licence or permit approved about 10 years ago should no longer be valid,” he argued.
He claimed that due to the close proximity of their houses to the quarry there had been few occasions where stones, some bigger than his wrist, were flung during blasting and hit their houses which consequently caused some minor damages.
Four holes were found on the roof of his house inflicted by the flying stones while his neighbour’s door was also broken but all damages had been reinstated by the company.
He said while it was good on the part of the company that it would immediately repair certain damages caused to their properties it was unfortunate that the problem they have been facing was more than just that.
“With the quarry now in operation it had been giving lots of problem not only to us in Kampung Prutan but also those from the two Malay settlements, Kampung Tanah Puteh and Kampung Endap which are further in.
“The narrow access road leading to our area is now badly damaged by the huge lorries transporting stones from the quarry. The company operating the quarry no doubt is upgrading the road but until today we have been travelling on gravel road surface plus several potholes all over,” he said.
He said apart from the damaged road surface people using the route will also have to bear with heavy dusts during dry whether and dirt when it rained.
In view of this he appealed to the authorities concerned to look into this matter before any untoward incident happened or at least help look into ways to alleviate their suffering.