Despite denials, the Templer Villas Residents Association insists that the developer working on the Templer Jhara project uphill from their homes is responsible for their woes.

The resident association’s president Thay Peng Kee said the mudflows coming into their homes cannot be attributed solely to illegal clearings at other nearby sites.

“We can show you the amount of damages and how the river is flowing. It could not have come from an adjacent lot.

“It could not be. The water is coming from the clearing,” he told Malaysiakini yesterday.

Thay added that the clearing at another site started in 2012, but residents at Templer Villas did not experience any mudflows until the developer Shining Crest Sdn Bhd started its own clearing works

Shining Crest has reportedly said that it has complied with all hillslope development guidelines.

However, heavy rain may have damaged bunds at the project site and would need repairs, according to a company spokesperson quoted in The Star’s Metro edition last Saturday.

“The illegal land clearing at another site of Templer Park which has clogged the drains is to blame,” the spokesperson added, referring to the frequent floods downhill.

According to The Star , Templer Jhara is comprised of 60 bungalow units to be built on Lot 5070, and was approved some time before 2000.

The denial followed the residents association’s memorandum dated Jan 7 to the state government, appealing for the state’s intervention to stop the project.

In the 24-page memorandum addressed to state exco member for local government Ean Yong Hian Wah, the residents allege that the developer - without naming Shining Crest - had flouted several guidelines and regulations governing hillslope developments.

This supposedly includes flouting a stop-work order from the state, making unauthorised diversions and other works to streams in the project site, as well as developments on Class IV slopes that are supposed to be off-limits to all development except low-intensity infrastructure projects.

As a result, residents claimed in the memorandum that mud flows have entered their yards and even their homes from the development site, and left behind a layer of silt.

“Since earthwork started on Lot 5070 in late 2013, the wanton ways of the developer in carrying out work has been causing much anguish and fear among the residents of Templer Villas whose homes are adjacent and downhill of the development site.

“The recent mud flow and flooding of our homes and the unbearable noise from rock breaking work are causing fear and sleepless nights to us,” said Thay in the memorandum.

Thay told Malaysiakini that he and other residents’ association officials met Ean Yong at his office yesterday to discuss the issue, along with Coalition of Templer Park Residents’ Associations chairperson Mukthar Ismail.