Down to a trickle at PJ Old Town market

Citizen Journalists Malaysia recently received a request from Nathan, a disabled person and resident of PJ, who lamented that his emails and complaints to MBPJ on various aspects of PJs road condition and surroundings have fallen to deaf ears.

CJMY was taken on a tour to the PJ Old Town Wet Market (also known as Pasar Besar Jalan Othman) located at Jalan Othman.

The 30-year-old wet market with about 500 traders, seem to have outlived its purpose. The market is severely neglected and in dire need of a major upgrade if it were to operate optimally.

During the tour, Nathan started by pointing out the dirty, wet and unhygienic floor coupled with poorly lit and cramped conditions that will surely sting first-time visitors.

During the tour, CJMY randomly interviewed traders and shoppers to document their complaints, ranging from problems with water shortage, poor lighting, traffic congestion and even the presence of drugs addicts.

Some of the traders said that they have been facing unresolved problems of either no or low water pressure running from their taps for at least a decade.

During one interview, it was found that the presence of MBPJ officers on duty was sorely lacking with cleaning maintenance purportedly carried out only once a month.

At around 9.30am  to 10.00am, traffic was building up outside the wet market, at the three corner junction and some car drivers coming down from the ramp of the car-park area located above the wet market suggested that the roads should be turned into a one-way street to ease the peak hour congestion.

It was found that numerous reports have been highlighted in local dailies yet no action have been taken by MBPJ to ease the difficulties faced by market traders.