P’pang council keeping tabs on rubbish woes
Published on: Wednesday, October 27, 2021
By: Sidney Skinner
.jpg "P’pang council keeping tabs on rubbish woes")
Council workers load the bagged waste at Grand Millennium Plaza into a compactor.
THE Penampang District Council is keeping tabs on the garbage collection for at Grand Millennium Plaza to ensure that illegal dumps do not form around the commercial centre, while the management company (MC) for Country Heights Apartments is dealing with a similar problem on the grounds for the property.A spokesman for the agency said temporary breakdowns in its service were partly to blame for the rubbish problems at both locations.
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“A ‘roll-on-and-roll-off (RORO)’ bin could not be placed at the Plaza, at one stage, because the hydraulics for the lorry, used to transport this receptacle, failed earlier this month,” he said.
“To our dismay, we found that an illegal dump had sprung up in the car park where the RORO bin should have been.”
Country Heights tenants were displeased about the rubbish spilling out of the bins near their blocks.
He said the Council deployed a compactor and an open truck to facilitate in efforts to remove the mess on the same day that this irregularity came to light.
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“Our workers cleared the mound of bagged refuse and bulky waste, including bits of wood and unwanted furniture, which had been thrown in this part of the commercial centre.
“The RORO bin was put back at the same spot shortly afterwards.”
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The spokesman said there had been no further setbacks in the Council’s collection since then, with the RORO bin, beside the car park, replaced at regular intervals.
“The rubbish around the Plaza is cleared on a daily basis.”
When it came to Country Heights, he said the collection was made five-times a week with the Council only liable for removing the garbage from the bin centre for the apartments.
Action was also taken to remove the bulky waste which had been thrown in this part of the Plaza.
“Our compactor does not go to the individual blocks here so it falls to the MC’s workers to transport the rubbish from these buildings to the bin centre.”
The spokesman admitted that the agency’s service had been disrupted for a period between August and September due to Covid-complications involving its collection staff.
“Our compactor also could not access the bin-centre because of the heavy rains, at one point, last month as the road leading to the property was flooded.
“These hiccups, however, are a thing of the past and our collection at Country Heights is proceeding as normal.”
A MC spokesman said the company had been swamped with complaints from the apartment-owners in September about the rubbish overflowing from the bins near their blocks.
“We were notified, at the time, that many of the Council’s collectors had contracted Covid-19,” he said. “This information was shared with our tenants.”
“However, when the situation began to get out of control, we borrowed open trucks from two of our sister properties in Telipok to transport the rubbish from Country Heights to the Kayu Madang landfill.”
The MC loaned some open trucks from its sister properties in Telipok to facilitate in efforts to transport the rubbish away from Country Heights.
He said maintenance personnel for the apartments helped load the refuse from the bins around the various blocks there into these vehicles.
“The Council resumed its collection at the end of last month. Since then, the MC has been tackling the indiscriminate disposal of bulky waste on the grounds.”
The spokesman said the firm’s staff were on the lookout for tenants who dumped unwanted items – like beds, cabinets and sofas – in the common areas there.
He admitted that the MC faced an uphill task trying to resolve these garbage woes.
“Some apartment-dwellers are choosing to take the easy way out by piling up their rubbish here and there on the grounds.
“These inconsiderate individuals claim it is too far to walk to the bin-centre.”
The Council and MC spokesmen were responding to a complaint from a apartment-owner about rats which he had seen scurrying about the common area around the block where he stayed.
LAWRENCE said this had been happening for the past few months.
“The rodents have even begun to burrow into the engines of the residents’ vehicles,” he said.
He said the bins for the building were always a “mess”, with garbage strewn around these receptacles.
“There are 100 plus households in my block and the rubbish generated by these families is, literally, overflowing from the bins.
“I wonder if the stench from the rotting waste is attracting the rats to my block.”
Lawrence said he had contacted the MC on numerous occasions about these problems.
The staff apparently informed him that they would get back to him on the action to be taken.
“So, far they have yet to make good on their word,” he said.
A RORO bin was later returned to the car park in this section of the commercial center.
“I have to pay a monthly management fee which I feel is not being put to good use as the rats continue to invade my home.
“I feel it is unfair to impose this fee if the services are not forthcoming.”
Meanwhile, NIA of Luyang expressed her disgust at the mound of bagged waste in one part of Grand Millennium Plaza.
She chanced upon “the small hill of rubbish” while returning from a supermarket there.
“While I was driving past this part of the centre, my young son just happened to throw his toy out of the car window,” he said.
“I was forced to stop and look for it among the vehicles which had been left in the car park.”Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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