SPECIAL REPORT Fear, worry and anxiety are the most common words used by the people of Pengerang in Johor to describe their state of life after being relocated for the RM60 billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project of the national oil and gas company Petronas.

The residents simply did not expect to face problems such as land subsidence and swampy soil in the area they were relocated to - Taman Bayu Damai - thereby bringing never-ending inconveniences upon them.

One of these residents, housewife Salman Abdullah, said she thought that a better life would begin in a new environment after she moved from her old house in Kampung Sungai Kapal, where the land was acquired by the government to make way for the Rapid project.

However, her nightmare soon started. This began upon her spotting an interspace at the bottom of the house she was compensated with for moving out of Kampung Sungai Kapal.

The cause of this interspace, Salman ( left ) learnt, was due to land subsidence and this caused the drainage beside the house to break up as well.

“Rain water will flow into the bottom of my house. I am worried about this... will the place become a hotbed for mosquitoes if the bottom part is waterlogged?” asked Salman, who also lives in fear of the house collapsing.

Some 400 residents in Kampung Sungai Kapal have been moving in stages to Taman Bayu Damai since March this year. The residential area is newly-developed, mainly as a housing zone for  residents forced to move out for the Rapid project.

According to the residents, 1,200 houses have been built at Taman Bauyu Damai, an area that was a swamp.

Based on observations by a Malaysiakini team two weeks ago, many residents are facing similar problems. Cracks are common on the walls of the houses, and some residents also revealed that they had yet to get land titles and certificates of fitness for their new houses.

Facilities and infrastructure provided for the residents of Taman Bayu Damai were also found to be inadequate: there is no shop, school, mosque or clinic there.

Worse still, some of the houses that are yet to be occupied houses were seen to be tilted.

Commenting on this, retired civil servant Hamidun Ahmad condemned the inefficiency of the government officers involved in the project and the building contractors.

Hamidun, who was relocated in March, said the house he was compensated with for moving out of his village had several problems even before he moved in.

Despite numerous complaints made, he claimed, no one came to address his problems until his last complaint to the developer, on Sept 15.

“Whenever we complain to the developer, they don’t care. They just ask us to fill in a form and submit this to the office. They claim repairs would be carried out after one week, but I am still waiting, till now,” said the 56-year-old, who was forced to spend RM2,500 of his own money to repair the drainage beside his house.

Hamidun ( right ) said the market price tagged by the authorities for a single-storey terrace house in Taman Bayu Damai is RM245,000. The affected residents received RM140,000 for land acquisition and RM105,000 for house compensation from the government following the launch of the mega Rapid project.

He also claimed that the government required the affected residents to purchase the houses in cash, but they had yet to receive their land titles and certificates of fitness.

Hamidun further said that the government had also promised compensation of two-acre plots of land to each of the evicted families, but the affected residents were not told where their plots would be located.

“Everyone asked us to support, let Umno and Barisan Nasional win in the 13th general election. They have won (the election) but what have they given to the rakyat?” he asked.

However, asked about his stand on the Rapid project, Hamidun expressed his support, saying that the government’s planning was good and that the problems usually occurred at the implementation stage.

Awaiting report for further action

According to Tebrau Teguh Sdn Bhd’s 2012 financial report, it was appointed by the Johor state government to be the contractor for Taman Bayu Damai.

The company has been renamed as Iskandar Waterfront City Sdn Bhd, one of the contractors in charge of building Waterfront City in Iskandar.

Based on the report, this housing project is worth RM520 million. Iskandar Waterfront City’s subsidiary company, Tebrau Bay Construction Sdn Bhd, has been authorised to spend  RM153 million to clear the construction site and take charge of civil engineering works.

Tebrau Teguh’s person in charge had reportedly said the company was still waiting for the report from the state’s Economic Planning Unit before proceeding with its next step.

However, Malaysiakini is yet to obtain feedback from the contractor after numerous attempts to do so.

Meanwhile, an officer with the Johor Economic Planning Unit told Malaysiakini that the report would be submitted to director-general A Rahim Nin for approval before the next action is taken.

Pupils forced to share school buildings

The Rapid project has brought a huge impacts on the Pengerang community, with schoolchildren affected as well. Pupils from two primary schools are now forced go to other primary schools from next year.

The sites of two schools, SJKC Tai Sin and SK Sungai Kapal have been taken for the Rapid project and the school authorities have been instructed by the Johor Education Department to share school facilities with other schools pending the completion of their new buildings.

SJKC Tai Sin and SK Sungai Kapal are located in Kampung Sungai Kapal, where the land has been acquired for the Rapid project by the state government.

SJKC Tai Sin ( left ) will be moving to SJKC Yok Poon in Kampung Sungai Rengit, while the pupils of SK Sungai Kapal will have to relocate to SK Teluk Ramunia at Kampung Ramunia.

This arrangement has caused much dissatisfaction among the parents of pupils at SJKC Tai Sin, who said this would raise many problems with two schools having to operate under one roof.

One parent, Tan Soon Teck, said the Tai Sin pupils would from next year have to attend their classes in the afternoon, while the Yok Poon’s pupils would have their classes in the morning.

Tan said some 90 pupils from Tai Sin will now have no place for their tuition classes and would be forced to used the classroom for kindergarten children, which is much smaller in size.

As such, he said, the quality of teaching and learning would be affected.

Parents protest, want temporary school building

SJKC Tai Sin was built in 1945 and the government had only allocated the fund for the construction of the new school building in 2012, a few months before the land acquisition announcement was made.

However, the construction of the new school in Taman Bayu Damai only began in August this year and it was scheduled to be completed a year later.

This sparked disgruntlement among the parents, with some 30 of them holding a protest in front of the school last month.

They want a temporary school building, instead of their children having to share the SJKC Yok Poon school building and apparently, their call was rejected by the authorities concerned.

There are four Chinese primary schools in Pengerang and of them, only SJKC Tai Sin and SJKC Pei Cheng are affected by the land takeover.

Tan, a father of three, said that it only took less than five minutes for the children to reach the school before this.

And with the new arrangement, he said, the pupils would have to travel a longer period to get to their school, and they needed to stay longer in school as well.

To this, SJKC Tai Sin headmistress Goh Siew Ng ( left ) said she would try her best to calm the parents down over the arrangement.

However, Goh refused to speak about the problem, saying that the matter was “sensitive”.

“If there is any problem, no matter how, I will try my best to solve it,” she stressed.

The Malaysiakini team in Pengerang also observed that the forest behind the school has been wiped out for sand mining for the Rapid project. Hundreds of trucks were seen transporting sand for reclamation work on the shore off Pengerang, from day to night, every day.

The Chinese graveyard behind the school has also been demolished for the mega Petronas development and most of the graves have since been relocated.

Yesterday: Deities in Pengerang to be 'homeless'