Homeowners ordered to remove structures outside their backyards
Published on: Thursday, March 02, 2023
By: Sidney Skinner
A City Hall staff snaps a photo of the badly overgrown drain in this Sepanggar Bay neighbourhood.
FOUR Manggatal homeowners have been instructed to remove the structures placed outside their backyards as these items are making it difficult for City Hall to clean the drains and tend to the greenery on the reserves here.A spokesman for the agency’s Building Control Department said notices to this affect had been served to these rate-payers.
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“They have been given a grace-period to vacate the land on shoulders of the common drain behind their units,” he said. “Further action can be taken against them if the encroachment persists after this.”
The illegal structures on the drain shoulders make it difficult for the structure to be properly desilted.
He declined to elaborate on the nature of this action but did not rule out the possibility of City Hall going in to dismantle or confiscate these illegal structures.
“The homeowners could be billed for any demolition costs incurred in such instances.” The agency’s personnel confirmed that the rate-payers had encroached into government property during separate inspections of the neighbourhood in the Sepanggar Bay area, according to the spokesman.
“They observed that fences had been set up across some reserves, while homes had been extended into others.
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“Structures, like water tanks and clothes’ lines, were also noted on the drain shoulder.”
A spokesman for the agency’s Landscaping Department corroborated the hindrance to its efforts to maintain the common areas in the housing area.
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He said many of the backyard drains there could not be cleaned properly, while the reserves in the vicinity were unkempt as the grass could not be cut and the weeds could not be uprooted.
The drain-clearing team hard at work in this part of Lorong Kenawai 4.
“Water is stagnating in the clogged sections and there is a high possibility that mosquitoes might be breeding in these drains,” he said.
He said the drains behind homes within City Hall’s rating area attended to according to a fixed schedule
“Where possible, we try to have them cleaned once every three months. The grass on the reserves is trimmed monthly. He said the agency’s drain-clearing unit went to Taman Tasik and the Dah Yeh Villa last week.
“A six-man team – equipped with ‘cangkuls (hoes)’ and ‘parangs (machetes)’ – desilted the drains and dealt with the reserve land on Lorong Bunga Dedap 1 and Lorong Burung Kenawai 4.”
The workers also removed twigs and branches which had caught on the pipes which extended over the latter drain, according to him.
“Our staff have been asked to check on the condition of the drains at both neighbourhoods, from time to time, to ensure that these structures are being cleaned as they should.”
ROSA of Luyang was under the impression that the drain behind her house in Taman Tasik had not been cleaned for some time.
She said water was stagnating in inside this structure clogged with grass.
“We have to keep the windows in the kitchen and our front room closed to prevent the foul smell from permeating our home,” she said.
“When it rains, the water inside rises very quickly. So far the drain has not overflowed but, if it did, my compound would surely flood.”
A worker tends to the overgrown greenery on this reserve in Taman Tasik.
Rosa said she had also noticed an increase in the number of mosquitoes buzzing about her home and feared that the drains had become a breeding ground for these insects.
“At one stage, I saw some workers cutting the grass on the drain reserve.
“I asked one of them whether they could clear the grass inside the drains and was told that this wasn’t in their scope of work.”
FLAVINNA, who owns a corner lot in the Dah Yeh Villa area, said the drain at the side of her home appeared to be poorly maintained.
“It has not been cleared in a while and is full of sediment,” she said.
“This debris has built up inside which provides the perfect habitat for shrubs and other plants.” She said the grass either side of the drain was also overgrown.
Flavinna was at a loss to understand how the relevant authority could have turned a blind eye to this situation. She suspected that the water inside the drain had begun to stagnate.
“I dare not even sun my clothes in my front yard because the smell will stick to my laundry.”
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