RM500 compound for failure to maintain grease-traps in kitchens
Published on: Friday, February 21, 2020
EATERY operators at a commercial centre, located near Tamam Fortuna, risk being slapped with a RM500 compound for failing to maintain the grease-traps in their kitchens.
A spokesman for City Hall’s Health and Environment Department (HED) said such action could be taken in extreme cases under the agency’s by-laws.
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“First time offenders face the possibility of having to settle a RM100 compound,” he said.
He said the Department’s inspectors would be checking on the condition of the kitchens, including the grease-traps, at food outlets there.
“The grease should be removed from the traps every day and not as and when it becomes necessary to do so,” he said.
“If need be, notices to this affect will be issued to all the proprietors in the building instructing them to step up efforts to attend to the traps on their premises.”
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The spokesman said the eatery-operators concerned would be given a grace period in which to do this,” he said.
“Should they fail to comply, then further action will be taken against them.”
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City Hall’s action was prompted after its Engineering Department (ED) discovered foreign objects and congealed grease inside the sewer pipes connected to a manhole in the area.
This caused effluent to escape onto the main road for some time recently.
An ED spokesman said the sewer line was cleared after City Hall became aware of the problem.
“We are working together with our colleagues from the HED to periodically monitor the goings-on at the centre,” he said.
Both spokesmen were responding to a complaint about the nuisance created by effluent overflowing from a manhole on Jalan Penampang, near the Fortuna Commercial Centre.
NESS of Penampang said the tyres of her car were soiled by the foul smelling fluids coming from the manhole.
“I was going to visit a friend living in Taman Fortuna,” she said.
“My car splashed through what I thought was a puddle on the main road before I reached the junction to the neighbourhood.”
When she reached her friend’s house several minutes later, she was shocked to find that the body of her car smelt like a toilet and she had to hose down the vehicle.
“I suspected that the liquid which splashed on my car was effluent from a manhole.”
Her suspicions were confirmed when she next went to visit her friend a few days later.
“It was only then that I noticed the fluids ‘erupting’ from the manhole on the main road. The scene reminded me of a mini volcano. Given the heavy traffic along the stretch, I am sure that other road users would have also had their vehicles soiled by the stinking liquid.” Ness hoped the local authorities would address these sewerage woes for the benefit of the public.
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