Stepping up efforts to maintain drains, prune trees
Published on: Friday, July 26, 2024
By: Sidney Skinner
Members of the Drain Cleaning Unit remove the weeds and dried twigs from the drain reserve in Taman Likas Jaya.
CITY HALL staff will step up efforts to maintain the drains and trees under its jurisdiction, following feedback about the stench coming from a backyard in Taman Likas Jaya, as well as the overgrown greenery along a road in Kg Likas.
The Likas homeowner, who spoke out about the foul smell permeating her kitchen, suspected that that this could be due to the layers of mud in the common drain behind her house.
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A driver who lives in Kg Likas, on the other hand, was unhappy about the branches of the trees on the road shoulder. He said some of the branches had become so long that they scratched the tops of vehicles passing underneath.
These individuals related their observations separately to Hotline. Their grievances were forwarded to the agency.
The backyard drain, off Lorong Burung Kenari 2, in the process of being flushed.
A spokeswoman for City Hall’s Landscaping Department said its Drain Cleaning and Tree Pruning Units were separately alerted to these irregularities.
She said a senior Landscaping staff inspected the drain running at the back of Lorong Burung Kenari 2, shortly after the agency was contacted by the media.
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“He was accompanied on this occasion by an occupant of the house where the complainant lives,” she said.
“The drain was not clogged with water vegetation. The level of the water inside was also low, which was a good indicator that the drainage was functioning as it should.”
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Nevertheless, given the rate-payer’s concerns about the unsettling odour, eight workers with the Unit returned a week later to have the drain flushed.
“They brought a water tank with them and used the contents to hose down the drain in an endeavour to remove any silt which had settled at the bottom of the structure.
“Our staff also removed any weeds and dried branches from the reserve land on either side.”
The spokeswoman said this was the second time this month the drain had been cleaned.
“Our workers used ‘cangkuls (hoes)’ to desludge the drain at the beginning of the month.”
She said a check of its records revealed that the structure had previously been cleaned on June 19.
The agency’s staff had been asked to check on the condition of the drain, from time to time, to ensure that the inconvenience caused by the stench did not recur, according to her.
She said the frontyard drains in Taman Likas Jaya were maintained by the government concessionaire, according to a fixed schedule.
“The management was apprised of the homeowner’s feedback, lest the foul smell be coming from the drain outside her main gate.
“One of the firm’s staff assured us that an inspection would be made to verify this nuisance.
“We were made to understand that its workers most recently desilted the drain on June 11.”
Where the greenery in one part of Kg Likas was concerned, the spokeswoman said City Hall’s Tree Pruning Unit dealt with the overgrown branches a day after it learned about the inconvenience caused to motorists living in the area.
“One of our six-tonne lorries and a sky-lift, with an articulated arm, were deployed to assist the eight-man team with their effort,” she said.
“One of the teams went up with a chainsaw in the machine which can reach an elevation of about 12 metres,” he said.
She said Landscaping staff had been asked to be more mindful about the condition of the greenery growing along roads under its jurisdiction, including Jalan Kuala Laut.
“This will go a long way to ensuring that the public are not unduly inconvenienced by any irregularities involving the trees and grass growing on verges within our rating-area.
“The trees, which belong to us, are pruned as and when it warrants doing so,” she said.
“The grass on the road shoulders, on the other hand, is cut on a monthly basis.”
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