By Emellia Tamoh
KUCHING, July 17: Poh Kwong Park residents hope that a telecommunication tower “just right beside their houses” will be removed.
In a press conference today called by Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei, the residents presented a written petition to Wong.
It expressed their hope that Wong will hand over the petition to the relevant authorities who are in charge of erecting telco towers.
The petition was signed by about 50 residents from the Poh Kwong Park residential area, requesting for the removal of the telecommunication tower that was built in April and began operating in May, this year.
According to one of the group’s leaders, KK Bong, though it was still uncertain whether the telecommunication tower may affect the health of those living beside it, the residents have been feeling uneasy over the existence of the said tower.
Furthermore, they claimed that the tower was powered by a generator set which has been creating noise and air pollution for the people living nearby.
“We are not sure whether that tower will affect our health or not, but the noise produced by the generator is upsetting the residents,” said Bong.
Meanwhile, Wong who claimed that Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) was the relevant authority to answer the residents’ request, questioned the necessity to build eight towers within a one kilometre radius of the Sungai Maong area, which Poh Kwong Park forms part of.
“My question is, why are there so many telecommunication towers being built within such a short distance and so many within that residential area?”
He said some of these towers are only 200 to 300 metres away from other other.
“Another problem with that telecommunication tower is that it is not connected to the electricity grid but instead, powered by a generator set,” Wong said, echoing the residents’ complaints.
Wong also pointed out that apart from the residents of Poh Kwong Park, those living within the vicinity of Jalan Jambu also objected to the building of another telecommunication tower there.
Wong said he had written to SMA General Manager Dr Zaidi Razak last week with regards to the plan to erect a new telco tower at Jalan Jambu. However, there has been no response from Zaidi yet.
He reminded SMA that they should be fair when it came to this issue because the interest of the people was at stake.
“I noticed that there is a trend now that SMA is erecting a lot of telecommunication towers all over Sarawak especially in highly populated areas,” said Wong who demanded a response from Zaidi.
He said this has raised concerns because according to international safety standards, telecommunication towers should not be built near schools or residential areas. — DayakDaily
