Saturday, April 16, 2011

License requirement for Kundasang resorts

KOTA KINABALU: Resorts in Kundasang will soon have to comply with the building statutory requirements established by the Environment Department, Public Works Department and Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) before having their operating license approved.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said in a press conference on the Sabah Fest’s Colorful Extravaganza at a resort near here yesterday that he had already asked his permanent secretary Datuk Michael Embah to arrange a meeting with the local authorities concerned to establish strategies that would address the shortcomings and haphazard developments of resorts at the mountainous area.

“We need to put things right,” he said, adding that they would meet up with the operators and owners of the resorts once the report was ready.

He added that resorts and hotels must address all safety issues and that his ministry is unwilling to allow them to be lackadaisical on the matter.

“We can’t wait until someone dies before it is addressed,” he stressed.

Masidi commented on the recent landslide that occurred in Kundasang where it had affected some of the properties belonging to the villagers there as well as one resort.

He cited that the landslide has ‘exposed’ some aspects of resorts development at the area that needed to be rectified.

In the case of the affected resort, Masidi said that it had a hidden drainage and piping systems that were ill constructed.

He stressed that the relevant local authorities must ensure that all resorts at the district abide by the approved building plans.

Masidi was also asked to comment on a report on landslides that was published in another local daily newspaper.

In the report, there were comments coming from tour guides and tourists who were aghast at the sight of hill cutting activities and trees being chopped indiscriminately in the district of Kundasang.

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