Commuter asks: Why WAIT for public to COMPLAIN?
The New Paper 24 Apr 08;
WHY wait for the drains to clog up, the rubbish to pile up and the water to turn murky before cleaning them up?
That was what Ms Alleena Ng wondered as she observed the gradual decline in cleanliness at certain areas along the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) over a period of two weeks.
She told The New Paper: 'I assumed that cleaners contracted by the relevant bodies would clean up the place. But nothing was done and the mess accumulated over time.'
The 50-year-old sales representative said that the overhead bridge, bus stops and canals along the PIE Toa Payoh stretch were severely neglected.
Ms Ng had observed the mess enroute to work on bus service 985. She also uses the overhead bridge daily to get to the bus stop and had noticed the area around it while waiting for the bus.
Ms Ng said: 'Aside from dried leaves and plants growing wildly along the road side, there was a bigger problem of drains clogged with debris and heaps of rubbish overflowing in garbage cans.
'The authorities have been discouraging mosquito-breeding, but the state of these public areas was horrifying.
'Why wait for the public to inform the authorities before something is done about it?'
Ms Ng did not inform the authorities, but she wrote to The New Paper.
Mr Tan Nguan Sen, the director of catchment and waterways at national water agency PUB, told The New Paper that the agency's contractors are engaged under a performance-based contract to maintain the drains.
The focus of such a system is to reward good performance and penalise shoddy work. Under this system, the contractors will have to clean as often as it is necessary to keep the drains clean and litter-free.
However, if they fail to keep the drains clean, they will be penalised.
Mr Tan said: 'PUB has since investigated the cases highlighted along the PIE in the Toa Payoh area and found that the contractor in charge failed to meet the standards and has been penalised.'
Likewise, a National Environment Agency (NEA) spokesman said that officers found that their contractor-in-charge failed to meet the required cleansing standards and a warning was issued.
Under NEA guidelines, pavements, overhead bridges and litter bins should be cleared once every two days.
The PUB and NEA said that they welcome public feedback, which would strengthen their checking system.
The areas mentioned by Ms Ng have since been spruced up and sediments in the drains have been cleared.
Yesterday, Ms Ng also noted that the area was cleaner.
Still, she feels that more work can be done on the sites.
She said: 'Even after the clean-up operation, water in the drains is still stagnant.
'I suggest they do some repairs to fix the drainage system to allow the water to flow, because stagnant water is a primal breeding ground for mosquitoes.'
The hotlines to call are 18002846600 (PUB) and 18002255632 (NEA).
