Sri Selangor RA chairman Zaimi says the typical response time to complaints by DBKL is two months
SRI Selangor residents are upset with Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) over the delay in repairing leaky pipes at their low-cost flats in Jalan San Peng, Cheras.
Block Nine tenant Ganesan Suppiah said he had been trying to get DBKL to look into the problem at his unit, but to no avail.
“Every time it rains, the toilet overflows and floods the kitchen. If the rain is heavier, floodwaters enter the living room,” said Ganesan.
The dispatch rider, who occupies a one-room ground floor unit with his mother, said he often came home to a house that smelled like the toilet.
Water leakage from the pipes is causing mildew to grow on his kitchen walls and has also made a mess of the kitchen floor.
“This situation is affecting our health, but DBKL will not give us a new unit unless the whole house is beyond repair,” said Ganesan.
His next-door neighbour Manokaran Nallamal is facing the same problem. Rust has damaged the lower half of the sewerage pipe in her toilet.
“When there is heavy flushing in the upper floors, water seeps out from the holes and floods my toilet,” she said.
Even the Cure and Care Centre, which provides counselling sessions for recovering drug users, has not been spared.
Peer counsellor Ramli Ibrahim said every time he turned on the kitchen sink tap, water flows out through the kitchen cabinet.
In Block Seven, Kalaivanan Letchumanen said the current situation was making him wonder if the quality and safety of their water supply had been compromised.
“It looks like there is rust in the water coming out from my kitchen tap,” he said.
Since January this year, 59 complaints have been recorded by the DBKL office unit for rust-eaten pipes, clogged manholes and a host of other faults relating to water leakages like rotted door jambs and crumbly walls.
Sri Selangor Residents Association chairman Zaimi Shamsuri, 33, claimed the typical response time from DBKL was two months. If the problem was major, it would take even longer.
Responding to the matter, DBKL Cheras Zone 2 assistant manager Hassan Kassim said work orders for repairs would take time because of paperwork and the manpower shortage.
“We only have one maintenance group to oversee 22 areas and 16,000 units. In total, we only have 16 people for civil, mechanical and electrical works,” he said.
On the residents’ complaints, Hassan said they have been keyed into DBKL’s e-Aduan system.
In addition to leaky pipes, residents are also dissatisfied with the cleaning services.
“Two cleaners are assigned to each of the six blocks but it looks like they only do rubbish clearing once in the morning and evening. The rest of the common areas like corridors, lifts and staircases are ignored,” said Zaimi.
As a result, piles of rubbish can be seen in corners and airwells. Rat droppings were spotted on staircases and the lifts stank of urine.
During a walkabout Zaimi showed StarMetro how a pile of rubbish forced a kindergarten to seal one of its entrances to keep out the stench of rotting food waste from the classroom.
On closer inspection, we saw a dead rat in the drain next to the rubbish pile. On the same floor was an abandoned storeroom with the floor covered in dirt and grime.
When informed of this, Hassan said appropriate action would be taken at the affected areas. This was dutifully done on the same day.
However, he reminded residents that the maintenance of Sri Selangor could not solely be left to the authorities. Hassan pointed out that as of March this year, residents owed DBKL more than RM573,636 in arrears.
The rental at the low-cost public housing scheme built in the 1970s is RM124 for a two-bedroom unit and RM94 for a single room unit.
Cheras Wanita MCA chairman Heng Sinn Yee, who brought the matter to light, said the authorities must take action.
“They need to find ways to monitor the performance of cleaning contractors for example, so that residents will have a healthy environment to stay in,” she said.
MCA Cheras Youth vice-chairman Teoh Chee Hooi said they would give Ganesan a helping hand by donating food and other necessities.
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