Taman Hiburan manholes and structures to be rebuilt
Published on: Wednesday, June 15, 2022
By: Sidney Skinner
One of the workers puts the finishing touches on the layer of concrete around the new manhole cover.
The Penampang District Council intends to rebuild the area around four manholes in Taman Hiburan, while the Sewerage Services Department (SSD) will step up efforts to check on the condition of these structures on Jalan Penampang.The former was responding to a rate-payer’s observations that the manhole on the verge, across from his house, had been overflowing for more than a year.
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A motorist, on the other hand, voiced her concerns about the traffic hazards posed by a damaged manhole cover at Mile 2 Jalan Penampang.
Both individuals provided Hotline with the location of these irregularities, which was forwarded to the respective agencies. A Council spokesman said a preliminary check revealed that the concrete around the manhole on Lorong Hiburan 6 was “pecah (damaged)”.
“The effluent was escaping through the cracks into the roadside drain nearby,” he said.
“This was also happening at three other manholes in the same neighbourhood.”
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He said the agency was arranging to call a tender for the repairs.
Besides the structural damage, the Council’s staff also found that the pump at the sewerage treatment plant servicing Taman Hiburan was malfunctioning.
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“We suspect that this may have been caused by the unstable electricity supply and are working together with Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd to resolve this problem.
The agency has since replaced the defective sewage-pump to try and minimise the amount of effluent emptying into the drains, according to him.
“Our staff have been asked to keep an eye on the pump from time to time and reactivate it if it doesn’t come back on automatically after a blackout.
“However, they might be a bit hard-pressed to do this as quickly as they should as there are only four of them and they have to look after all the sewerage installations under our care.”
A Council staff checks the control panel at the sewerage pump house after the new pump was installed.
To this end, the spokesman advised, the public there to report any problems involving the manholes in the neighbourhood directly to the Council so that action could be taken to deal with these problems as soon as possible.
BOON of Penampang bemoaned the nuisance created by the stench given off by the effluent, saying that he had to keep the doors and windows towards the front of his home closed to prevent the foul smell from getting indoors.
“It is difficult to have guests over without someone asking where the stink is coming from,” he said.
“Many of them have pointed out that it is very bad for the health of those of us living along the road.”
Boon shared his frustrations with one his neighbours who was under the impression that there might be a problem with the sewer line connected to the manhole.
“My friend has apparently been reporting this problem to the Council over and over times for the past year.
“The staff assures him each time that the relevant section will be informed about this matter but, so far, the situation has yet to improve.”
In all the years that he had been living in Taman Hiburan, Boon said, he had never been slow to settle the assessment owed to the agency.
“I feel it is unfair to pay the Council to maintain the sewerage when the service is not forthcoming.”
Meanwhile, the SSD installed a new metal cover for a manhole near the Jalan Lintas-Jalan Penampang trafficlight intersection last month, after the previous one was found to be damaged.
A Department spokeswoman said there was a high possibility that the cover might have cracked under the weight of a passing lorry or some other heavy vehicle.
“Some traffic cones were placed around ‘the hole’ in the road on the morning that we learned about this problem,” she said.
She said the agency’s staff returned that same night to temporarily seal ‘the hole’ with a round cement slab.
“They also placed a wooden pallet and put up some blinking lights to forewarn road-users about the obstruction which lies in their path.
“The next afternoon, one of our contractors returned to the site to put the new cover in place and to rebuild the area around the manhole.”
The spokeswoman said SSD personnel had been asked to periodically its assets at Mile 2 Jalan Penampang to ensure that this problem did not recur.
LEILA of Penampang voiced her concern about the inconvenience posed by the cover jutting out of the section the main road, not far from the Lido flyover.
She said the traffic flow was partially impeded by the cover, causing a jam to form as motorists slowed down to swerve round this obstruction.
“The hole in the road also poses a danger to drivers coming down from the Towering and Kobusak areas,” she said.
“If their tyres hit the manhole, they could easily lose control of their vehicle and this could lead to a bad accident.”
“I hope the relevant authority will do something about the cover and hole in the road before anyone comes to harm.”
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