The latest landslide tragedy in Taman Hillview caught my attention. I was trained and have worked two years as a geotechnical engineer (dirt, soil and foundation engineer) in the US although I have since change my career to web application development.

When a landslide like this occurred, the first thing one looks for is the design of the building foundation. When a building is proposed on a high-risk location (steep slope, hill top, etc.), sub-surface investigation (drilling, soil testings, etc.) needs to be performed before a foundation design can be finalised (be it soil treatment, retaining wall, shallow or deep foundation), since the foundation design will have to be based on the results of the sub-surface investigation.

When a geotechnical engineer signs off on the design, he assumes the liability of what comes with the design. Take my word, designing foundation is not rocket science! And very seldom does a foundation fail if it is designed properly (land erosion, flood, slope stability, etc. should have been taken into consideration during the design).

Now back to the landslide, since this is not the first in Malaysia's history, one has to wonder who is to be blamed for this. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to talk to an experienced contractor with 20 years in the building industry in Malaysia.

According to him, foundation design in Malaysia (unfortunately) needs no sub-surface investigation to justify its design. Every detail of the design is pretty much up to the engineer's experience with that particular area (and sad to say, most civil engineers in Malaysia are in structure, not geotech).

Nature might have played a role in the landslide, but I suspect that this is more of a technical issue than an act of nature.

Since I have not worked in Malaysia before, I hope someone with knowledge of this issue will shed some light on the landslide. If indeed the design of the foundation is flawed, something must be done on the foundation design practice and the geotechnical engineer should be held responsible for the disaster.

Bear in mind that I am not trying to incriminate fellow engineers. It's just that when one decides to take up engineering as a profession, one assumes the moral and ethical responsibilities that come with it.