City Hall to improve Taman Seri Gaya drainage
Published on: Friday, February 16, 2024
By: Sidney Skinner
A Landscaping staff checks on the condition of the backyard drain, off Lorong Seladang.
CITY HALL plans to improve the drainage in one part of Taman Seri Gaya to mitigate the nuisance created by run off ponding behind several homes in this Luyang neighbourhood during a downpour.
A spokesman for the agency’s Engineering Department (ED) said a check of the government land behind Lorong Seladang revealed the presence of a make-shift earth drain, which was being shored up on one side by floor tiles.
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“This structure must have been fashioned by some of those staying on the housing road,” he said.
“Seeing as how the reserve belongs to us, we will arrange to have a short concrete drain put in place. Some funds will be set aside to carry out this work.”
Effluent was leaking through this manhole in Taman Seri Gaya.
The poor state of the drainage came to light recently, while the Department was looking into a homeowner’s claims that a sewer pipe outside his backyard fence might be leaking.
The individual’s suspicions were raised after he noticed that the drain was full of some black water which gave off a strong ammonia-like stink. He was of the opinion that effluent could be finding its way into the structure.
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The ratepayer provided Hotline with the location of his house. This information was forwarded to City Hall.
The spokesman said its sewerage contractor went to Taman Seri Gaya shortly after learning about the homeowner’s concerns but initially failed to find anything amiss.
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“The sewage pipes in this part of the housing area were found to be in good order, with the fluids inside flowing smoothly,” he said.
“Owing to this, we enlisted the assistance of our Landscaping peers to verify if the drain might be blocked and in need of cleaning.”
A spokesman for City Hall’s Landscaping Department said its officers inspected the reserve behind Lorong Seladang a few days after this.
“They found that effluent was seeping out of a manhole on this land, through a space which had formed between the cement and soil where the manhole was located,” he said.
“The sewage was streaming into the surroundings.”
When it came to attending to the backyard drain, he said the Department was helpless to intervene as, in the first place, it was not one of the agency’s assets.
He said the structure appeared to have been haphazardly constructed and did not meet City Hall’s specifications.
“Any attempt by our workers to clean the drain would have caused the soil on the shoulders to destabilise and fall into the structure. This would only have made matters worse.”
The spokesman said Engineering staff were subsequently apprised of these findings.
The ED spokesman said its sewage contractor returned to the neighbourhood, after being informed about these developments.
“It was only then that he noticed the leaking manhole and set about making the necessary repairs.
“A new layer of cement was poured around the circumference of the manhole cover and the contractor’s workers later set about ‘sewer-rodding’ the pipes underneath.”
The contractor’s workers carrying out “sewer-rodding” of the sewer pipe below the affected manhole.
He said the individual had been asked to be more alert about any irregularities involving the manholes around Taman Seri Gaya to ensure that this problem did not recur.
“To this end, we have asked him to step up his inspections of our sewage assets in the neighbourhood.”
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