Shoddy work plagues SS1

Costly mishap: SS1 resident Neoh Jiun Yih says he spent RM170,000 to repair a collapsed retention wall behind his house after MBPJ

IMAGINE waking up one morning to find yourself bitten by jungle ticks, greeted by a snake or iguana in the living room or having to breathe in the stench from an overflowing toilet.

This is what some residents in the SS1 neighbourhood in Petaling Jaya have been putting up with since beautification works of a monsoon drain between Jalan SS1/21 and Jalan SS1/19 started in April 2014.

It has been more than two years now but the project, which was supposed to be completed in October 2014 and include a jogging track, remains incomplete with no information on its new completion date.

Residents in the area said the completion date had been postponed many times and it seemed like work on the project has stopped.

So far, contractors appointed by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) have cleared, covered and transformed the monsoon drain into what is supposed to be a jogging path.

However, work is shoddy and the earlier proposed installation of lights, landscape features and security gates have yet to be done.

A sinkhole behind Neoh's house in Jalan SS1/21.

Compounding the problem is poor planning by MBPJ, which has now left more than 100 households along Jalan SS1/21, Jalan SS1/19 and Jalan SS1/23 with broken sewerage and drainage.

“Contractors just came with their machinery and bulldozed their way through, damaging not only existing underground pipes but also cut off drainage and sewerate outlets for more than 100 households along the river,” said resident Neoh Jiun Yih.

Neoh, who lives in Jalan SS1/21, was one of those affected and had recently forked out RM170,000 to repair the retention wall behind his house.

He said the wall collapsed as a result of soil erosion caused by the sewage discharge and water flowing from his house.

With the original outlet leading into the monsoon drain gone and sewerage piping damaged, water and sewage seeped into the soil, causing the ground to soften and eventually give way.

“There is a sinkhole behind my house and I fear that my house can just collapse any time,” he said.

Neoh’s neighbours also face the same problem, but not all have the financial means to carry out such a costly repair.

Neoh spent RM170,000 to repair the retention wall behind his house which collapsed as a result of the broken sewerage pipes.

“My neighbour, who is a retiree, has no money to make repairs and now his backyard has collapsed.

“Residents are suffering over one bad project and during a town hall session, the MBPJ engineer actually told us we were unlucky to have had a bad contractor,” he said.

More than 25 residents who attended the session were upset with the Engineering Department because every time officers were confronted, they pushed the responsibility to others.

Residents claim they had done everything they possibly could including lodging reports to the Mentri Besar’s office but to no avail.

“Those living here are having a tough time. For me, it was a year of living with plastic bags and doing laundry everyday to get rid of ticks,” said resident Elizabeth Theseira

“For my neighbour, I heard they found rats, snakes and even iguanas in their home.”

The monsoon drain at the back lane of Jalan SS1/21 and Jalan SS1/23 has been covered and turned into a jogging path but residents say it is lacking security features such as lights and security gates.

For all of last year, her family was plagued by jungle ticks and other insects which escaped to find shelter in her home presumably after its nests were bulldozed and dug up by contractors.

A pest control company was called in to fumigate Theseira’s house more than eight times and her family members had even gone to the hospital numerous times to seek treatment for the bites.

When they lodged a complaint with MBPJ’s Health Department last year, the officers scattered rat poison and fumigated the area once.

However, this did not rid their house of insects and the issue persisted until the end of last year.

“Can you imagine having to wash everything in hot water everyday because the ticks get into everything including our clothes, cupboard and furniture?

Theseira said she had even found the insects among her belongings when she went to visit her son in Australia.

“It was not until I got the insect tested in Australia that I found out they were jungle ticks and not commonly found in domestic households – only in the jungle,” she said, adding that the insects had also infested her son’s house.

A temporary by-pass sewerage pipe installed by IWK to help channel sewerage waste from houses in Jalan SS1/21 and Jalan SS1/23. However, this method is not working because the original pipe near the monsoon drain is still broken.

In addition to this, residents also have to deal with security issues.

With the drain covered and the back lane pitch dark at night, residents are worried this will make it easy for robbers to break into the houses.

The residents said there had been a few robberies because of the lack of security features there.

“We were promised there would be sufficient lighting and security gates to prevent people from misusing the back lane but nothing of that sort has been installed so far,” said Theseira.

Meanwhile, resident E.K. Chee, who lives in Jalan SS1/23, was also affected by the broken pipes and overflowing toilets during peak hours.

“It is worse during mornings and evenings when people get back from work, the smell is really bad and my toilet is often filled with sewage,” he said.

When it rains heavily, water gushes out of the manhole outside Chee’s house, as a result of broken sewerage pipes in the monsoon drain.

Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) has been manually pumping out sewage from the manhole outside Chee’s house, but the overflow still occurs.

Kenneth Foong, who lives in Jalan SS1/19 here, has had to bear with constant flooding over the past year as a result of broken pipes.

After numerous complaints, MBPJ attempted to fix the problem.

The manhole outside Chee's house along Jalan SS1/23 where sewage water overflows during heavy rain.

“Their work was shoddy and when I pointed it out to them, they told me to leave the job to them as they were engineers,” he said.

Foong is the only resident, so far, who has taken legal action against MBPJ but the progress of his case is making other residents think twice about going down the same path.

He was informed by MBPJ that an independent contractor was hired for the job so the officers were not at fault, despite the fact that the council had appointed them.

“When we went looking for the contractor, my lawyers could not find any trace of them even at their homes or offices,” he said.

MBPJ public relations officer Zainun Zakaria said works at the monsoon drain was completed in May and the council was in the midst of appointing another contractor to fix the broken pipes.

However, MBPJ councillor Sean Oon who has been following the project’s progress closely, refuted claims that the project was completed.

“If work has been completed, where are the lights, gates, landscaping and why hasn’t it been handed over to IWK?” he said.

Meanwhile, Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San said the issue was highlighted to the state government two months ago.

“I hope the state government can do something to pressure the Petaling Jaya mayor and council officers to resolve this issue immediately.

“In fact, residents and the councillor for the area Sean Oon has also put in a complaint against the engineer in-charge for incompetency,” said Lau.

Oon is also initiating disciplinary action against the engineer who handled the project.

“This issue is a result of incompetency and those responsible are just pushing the blame rather than resolving residents’ problems,” said Petaling Jaya Utara MCA chairman Tan Gim Tuan.

He added that sub-standard work was not limited to the SS1 monsoon drain project but also seen in various other projects in Petaling Jaya.