Sick and sleepless over mosquito threat

Residents highlighting their complaints to Chua and Teh (front, in red).

WITH the rise in dengue and chikungunya cases in the state this year, residents of Azuria Condominium and Permai Ria Apartments in Jalan Lembah Permai, Penang, are worried sick over the poor upkeep of a piece of idle land near their homes.

A shack to store construction materials and equipment has been covered with overgrowth and receptacles amid the tanks and rusty machinery are found to contain stagnant water.

Residents worry that the place has become an eyesore and a breeding ground for mosquitoes and snakes.

Resident Tan Eng Boon, 74, said he was down with dengue fever for over a month and as a senior citizen, he cannot afford to always fall sick.

“The fever was different. I felt weak all the time,” he said.

Tan who has been staying at the condominium for more than four years said this was the first time he was down with dengue.

He hopes the authorities will take action to keep the piece of land clean and prevent it from becoming a dengue breeding ground.

Azuria Condominium Residents Association chairman Wong Weng Seng remarked that the authorities would only act if they complained.

“We have to make complaints every two or three months. Otherwise, nothing will be done.”

Chua Cheong Wee, a founding member of Socialist Progressive Front (SPF), said residents in both residential blocks feared that more of them would catch dengue or chikungunya fever.

“Some of the residents here have contracted the fevers and we believe that they were linked to this open space,” he said during a press conference in front of the Azuria Condominium entrance in Jalan Lembah Permai on Sunday.

He said the bushes and construction materials left there made the place a potential site for mosquitoes to breed. He insisted that the local authorities took proactive steps to clean up the place.

“The overgrowth will only be cleared if the residents complained, like the recent round when the grass and bushes were cut after three months of complaints from the residents,” he said.

Also present was former Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu, who is also a founding member of SPF.

Penang Island City Council councillor Connie Tan said an investigation would be launched on the complaint about the idle land.

“I can’t comment further until I have more information,” she said.