KEEP THE GREENERY: Don’t allow over-development to spoil the lush natural scenery — Filepic

It was a beautiful place, close to a hill which was covered with a lush forest. People loved to go hiking there while some visited a Hindu temple at the peak.

Some mornings, the weather was so cool that mist would form around the middle of the hill. It lent the housing estate an air of luxury.

Nearby, there was a plot of vacant land with trees and a small foodcourt. You could say that the greenery kept the place cool and comfortable.

Two years later, construction work began at the foot of the hill. The workers cleared away a big piece of the hillside to make way for the Kepayang Heights.

This effort exposed the soil, resulting in red mud flowing into a nearby storm water drain and clogging it. It remains choked with weeds growing from the settled mud.

My housing estate became increasingly dusty, hot and dry. When it rained, more mud would flow into the drains and on to the roads.

That’s not the end of it. The vacant plot of land was cleared to make way for the construction of commercial lots.

This not only raised the temperature and amount of dust, the population of mosquitoes seem to have increased by leaps and bounds.

So much so, there is a threat of the dengue menace, necessitating in a fogging exercise recently.

The point to this state of affairs is that there are already many shophouses and commercial lots within a one-kilometre radius that are wasting away, unoccupied.

So, why build another commercial lot just to add to the glut?

I hope the relevant parties would take appropriate measures, such as landscaping and tree replanting, to bring back the comfortable environment that once enchanted my area.

Chui Ling
Taman Bukit Kepayang, Seremban