Crackdown on indiscriminate refuse disposal
Published on: Thursday, March 23, 2023
By: Sidney Skinner
Landscaping workers clear the weeds which have formed in the planters on top of the bin centre.
CITY HALL will be cracking down on the indiscriminate disposal of refuse in a Manggatal neighbourhood to minimise the likelihood of Aedes mosquitoes breeding in any rainwater which may collect in these discarded items.This includes any unwanted vehicles dumped in the common areas, according to a spokeswoman for City Hall’s Environmental Health Department (EHD).
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She said a total of 14 abandoned cars were spotted around Taman Fajar during a joint anti-dengue operation on Monday between the agency and the “Pejabat Kesihatan Kawasan Kota Kinabalu (Kota Kinabalu District Health Office)”.
A DHO staff takes a closer look at the containers inside the kitchen in this unit.
“The registration plate details of these vehicles were recorded by our peers from the Enforcement Department (ED),” she said.
“We are deliberating over how best to get the relevant parties to deal with these unwanted automobiles.”
Besides the EHD and ED, several other departments within City Hall – including Landcsaping, Building Control, Engineering, Solid Waste Management and Traffic and Transport – participated in the operation.
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Representatives from the government concessionaire and the Darau Community Development Leader’s Unit were also present at the time.
The spokeswoman said the agency’s Landscaping workers attended to the drains and reserves behind homes in Taman Fajar, while the company’s staff did the same for those in the front of these premises.
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“Our Landscaping personnel even climbed onto the bin centre for the property to remove the weeds, including wild tapioca plants, which had grown in some planters on the roof of the building,” she said.
City Hall staff in the midst of removing the greenery which has clogged up this drain.
“Their peers from the Solid Waste Management Department also cleared the bits of refuse from the public areas in the neighbourhood.”
She said its Building Control personnel observed that two homes had been illegally extended into the reserve land in their backyards.
The section of the common drain in these places could not be cleaned properly because of these extensions, according to her.
On top of this, she said, the land on the shoulders was unkempt as the grass could not be cut and the weeds could not be uprooted.
“Water is stagnating in the clogged sections and there is a high possibility that mosquitoes might be breeding in this part of the drain.”
The spokeswoman said the notices would be served to the homeowners, instructing them to dismantle these extensions.
“They will be been given a grace-period to do this. Further action will be taken against them if they fail to comply.”
She 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.”
A spokesman for the District Health Office (DHO) said this was the second time in as many months that a “wabak” (outbreak) had occurred in Taman Fajar.
“Two dengue cases have surfaced in the neighbourhood since March 13,” he said.
He explained that an outbreak was deemed to have occurred if two or more dengue cases were reported within a 200-metre radius.
“The outbreak would be considered closed, if no one else in this area comes down with the disease in the following two weeks.
“Should the opposite happen, then the situation will be categorised as a ‘wabak tidak terkawal (rampant outbreak)’.
“A locality is dubbed a ‘hotspot’, if cases keep cropping up past the 30-day point.”
The overgrown banana trees and sugarcane plants in this common area are a potential habitat for mosquitoes.
He said DHO staff took a close look at containers outside and inside homes in Taman Fajar earlier this week, with a fluid-sample taken in one instance.
“Larvae was seen moving about on the surface of this water. The sample is being tested at one of our laboratories to determine, if Aedes are spawning in this fluid.”
He said the homeowner risked being slapped with a RM10,000 fine, if this was found to be true.
“The offender may also be required to serve a jail-term of up to two years, should they be found guilty in court.”
The spokesman said this could be done in extreme cases under the agency’s Destruction of Disease-bearing Insects Act 1975.
Should the DHO decide not to initiate legal proceedings, he said, the rate-payer might wind up having to settle a RM500 compound.
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