After decades of complaints, residents of Taman Tai Kheng in Kulaijaya finally engaged in a dialogue session with the Kulai Municipal Council recently.
The residents’ representative Cikgu Tukiman forwarded the numerous complaints, mainly regarding the drainage system in the housing area, to MPK representative Kok Yon Lan at the former’s house last week.
The dialogue happened just over a one week after citizen journalist Hedges Sun reported about the issues that the residents were facing, none of which were properly entertained by the council since 1975.
“I have been living here for nearly 40 years. But the open space, which was supposed to be handed over to the government by the developer, was never converted to a playground,” said Tukiman.
The open space has now been converted to a warehouse that stores construction materials, and also appears to be in a dilapidated manner.
The lack of an open space does not only affect Tai Kheng residents, but also residents from Taman Seraya and Taman Onn Holding, who all currently do not have a playground for their children.
However, the greater issue seems to be dysfunctional drainage at the area.
“It only needs to rain for an hour, and the drains would be full. For the terrace houses, its even worse, their houses will be flooded when it rains for too long,” he explained further.
The rains are mostly clogged, which is also contributing to the threat of dengue in the area.
“My neighbor just went down with dengue, and only then did the authorities bothered to spray the area. But what is the point? The problem comes from the drainage and that has to be fixed first.”
In addition to that, the residents also lack concrete drainages in roads that are located to the North-South railway track, where grasses have now overgrown to the extent the drainage is almost invisible to the eyes.
“The contractor attempted to clean it several times, but they told us they can’t because there is this building that was built too close to the drain. Now, there is rubbish strewn in the drainage as well, so the water never flows,” said another resident.
The approved site plan is also missing, according to the residents, and many believe, and the proposed site for low cost housing is now being occupied workshops and illegal houses.
“There is a lorry here, a very big tanker in a housing area. It’s inconvenient to everyone because it causes air and noise pollution,” Cikgu Tukiman added.
This, according to a council member, was because a tanker repairing workshop exists right at the outskirts of the housing area.
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Jimmy Tan
