STREET, DRAINAGE & BUILDING ACT 1974 APPLICATIONS Building Plan Approval The building plan is principally regulated by the Street, Drainage and Building Act and the subsidiary By-laws, like the Uniform Building By-law. The Act stated that the Local authority has to seek comments from the relevant bodies before giving its approval including the Town and Country Planning Department, Drainage and Irrigation Department, Department of Environment, Public Works Department and other departments as deemed necessary. The controls are exercised through a number of plans which have to be submitted by the proponents at this stage including the Earthwork plan, Roads & Drainage plan, Structural plan and Landscape plan. The objective of the authorities, through implementing the above measures, is to ensure that among others, the safety and stability of every building is ensured. Management of Drainage Systems Street, Drainage & Building Act empowers the Local authority and Department of Irrigation and Drainage to manage the rivers and drainage systems. Planning for major drainage, flood mitigation and river rehabilitation are mostly carried out by Department of Irrigation and Drainage. Meanwhile, Local authorities are concerned with municipal level drainage systems and issues. Both of the parties need to be concerned on rivers and drainage since it has a major impact on hill slope conservation and maintenance. For instance, the Highland Towers incident was caused primarily by issues pertaining to poor drainage planning, implementation and maintenance. The Department of Irrigation and Drainage and Local authorities are currently in a transitional stage in the adoption of the Manual for Stormwater Management for Malaysia (MSMA) which has been approved by the National Council on Local Government. The Department of Irrigation and Drainage has also produced several guidelines pertaining to rivers.
Management of Earthwork Earthwork By-laws which is regulated by Street, Drainage & Building Act appears to be the main statue governing earthwork activities in most local authority areas. The by-law contains explicit provisions to control earthwork in order to prevent soil erosion and sedimentation. The by-law stipulates that the engineer must submit earthwork plans to the local authority in a manner as detailed therein. The provision is limited only for purposes of erection of buildings, which is defined as any house, hut, shed or roofed enclosure, whether used for the purpose of human habitation or otherwise, and also any wall, fence, platform, staging gate, post, pillar, piling, frame, hoarding, slip, dock, wharf, pier, jetty, landing-stage or bridge, or any structure support or foundation connected to the foregoing. Property Maintenance and Management Street, Drainage & Building Act empowers the Local authority to ensure that relevant public areas and works are properly maintained. Some of the pertinent environmental concerns at this stage include the proper maintenance of drains and the stability of surrounding hill slopes.
http://slopes.jkr.gov.my/CoreBsness/FinalNSMP/VOLUME%20I_/Chapter%201%20%20POLICY%20&%20INSTITUTIONAL%20FRAMEWORK_/1_6_Appendix_1.pdf http://www.hba.org.my/laws/street/partII.htm
