City Hall to repair exposed and collapsed drains
Published on: Wednesday, February 24, 2021
By: Sidney Skinner
The holes in this Inanam drain are a potential death trap to the youngsters who go to the playground nearby.
CITY Hall plans to repair the roadside drain in one part of Taman Selesa, eight months after a ratepayer first noticed that the wall for this structure was damaged.A spokesman for the agency’s Engineering Department (ED) said the repairs had been included in the list of work to be carried out this year.
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“Our staff confirmed that some parts of the drain were cracked during an inspection carried out last month,” he said.
He said the agency was in the process of finalising the details to have the wall reconstructed.
“We tentatively hope to have this work completed by April”.
When asked about the lengthy hold-up in attending to the drain, the spokesman said an internal problem was to blame for the delay.
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He was responding to a complaint that the drain, along Lorong Rampai, overflowed whenever there was a downpour.
A home owner in the area said this situation arose because parts of the wall for the structure had collapsed.
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He said a crack had split the section of the drain outside his front yard, causing the concrete wall to lean over.
A spokesman for the City Hall’s Landscaping Department said its staff would check on the size of the concrete bits which were hampering the flow of water inside the drains.
The hole in the walkway for this Luyang commercial centre is a public hazard.
“We will have the debris removed as soon as possible, if this blockage is not too large,” he said.
“Should the opposite prove to be the case, then we will have to arrange to hire the necessary machinery to have the debris removed.”
He said the government concessionaire would also be asked to clear the drains in front of the resident’s home.
He said maintenance, including desludging work, was carried out on roadside drains under the government concessionaire according to a prearranged schedule.
“City Hall is only responsible for clearing those drains outside the backyard.
“This work is carried once a month, when the grass on the verges in the neighbourhood is cut.”
PAULINE of Kepayan said the bits of concrete which had fallen into the drain were impeding the flow of water inside.
She said the problem with the structure first caught her eye in the middle of 2020.
“When it rains, the water inside the drain spills out onto the road but when it is hot the water stagnates, giving off a foul smell,” she said.
“I fear that mosquitoes might be breeding inside the structure. I have noticed an increase in the number of these insects buzzing about my home.”
She said the soil from the verge near the drain has begun to give way, with the bits of earth finding its way into the drains.
Pauline said she related her observations to City Hall in June. By December, when no action was forthcoming, she contacted Hotline for help.
Meanwhile, the agency will check on the hazards posed by the exposed sections of a covered drain in one part of Inanam and Luyang.
The former is located near the playground for Unjana Kingfisher, while the latter is situated behind a shop at a commercial centre in the Hilltop area.
In both cases, the cement slabs covering the drain were either missing or damaged.
The ED spokesman said its staff would have to verify these problems.
“We will have to determine whether the common areas around the neighbourhood and the commercial centre are under our maintenance,” he said.
“If this is so, we will assess the extent of the damage and arrange to make the necessary repairs as soon as possible,” he said.
The spokesman said the relevant parties would be alerted to the problem if the opposite proved to be true.
EDDIE of Inanam said “the holes” in the drain, which was located a few metres away from the playground, were an accident waiting to happen.
“I fear a young child who doesn’t know any better might accidentally step into one of the exposed sections and fall into the drain, which is about four feet deep,” he said.
Eddie said he had to be extra watchful when he took his son to the playground in the afternoons.
“I shared my concerns with one of my neighbours who claimed that she first noticed ‘the holes’ in the drain years ago.”
She apparently told Eddie that more and more slabs had gone since then.
“She apparently related her fears about the safety hazards posed by the missing slabs to City Hall in 2019 but, so far, nothing had been done to cover the holes.”
He could not how the agency could have turned a blind eye to this public danger.
ANTHONY of Luyang said cracks had formed in the walkway outside the shops at the commercial centre.
He said the public risked being injured because of the uneven surface of the walkway.
“Those going on foot could easily trip and fall as sections of the tiles used to cover the pavement have been chipped away,” he said.
“The poor condition of the pavement creates the impression that the five-foot way has not been maintained for a long time.”
He said he hated to imagine what would happen if a pregnant woman or senior citizen took a tumble.
He said there was every possibility of this happening at night as some the common areas around the commercial centre were poorly lit at night.
Anthony said some of the shop operators had lodged complaints to City Hall about deteriorating state of the common area outside their premises.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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