Rat menace at Subang flats

14/10/2008 The Star By LIM CHIA YING

THEY sneak out from their little homes at night, and start scurrying around. Sniffing their way through the discarded food and rubbish, they chomp down in delight the leftovers and make the grass patch, just outside the homes of people, their playground.

This is the scene of rat invasion in an urban township in the Klang Valley. It is a vivid description that dwellers of the low-cost flats in SS13 Subang Jaya (near the 3K complex) give of the rat colony in their residential area that they have put up with for years.

“They are huge and fat, some almost the size of cats. When the skies turn dark, they will come out and play in front of our homes and the inner roads here. They are also not afraid of people,” said house owner Tam Kam Heng, who has lived in a Block M flat for the last 17 years.

Tam, 56, attributes the cause for rat invasion to the garbage that are sometimes strewn simply by residents who do not want to get near to the smell of the rubbish bin.

Rats’ playground: Along this grass patch just in front of the low-cost flats in SS13 Subang Jaya is where rats make their playground when evening falls. The unmaintained and broken drains add to the rat chaos here.

“The garbage collectors do come and collect the rubbish daily. But the problem is that some people are just plain inconsiderate by throwing the waste indiscriminately and not in the rubbish bin,” he said.

“The rubbish collectors also do not bother to pick up rubbish on the ground,” Tam said.

House owner Jane Soh, 81, who lives by herself, said that every resident should be responsible to keep the surroundings clean.

“I’ve been staying here for 24 years, and the situation is not getting better as this rat menace has become serious the past few years,” she said.

Their home: Resident Suriati pointing to the many rat holes dug up by the creatures as she walks down a flight of steps that is strewn with garbage.

“Many residents have got used to seeing the rats play in front of our homes. They are so huge and horrible that we make sure we close our doors every evening,” Soh said.

“We don’t know if the rats pose a health threat to us. Some residents simply discard food down the drains which inevitably become a fodder for these rats,” she said.

Subang Jaya assemblyman Hannah Yeoh said she was aware of the problem which was a long-standing issue for years.

“In fact, I’ve joined in a round of gotong-royong in the area and our volunteers even brought in pest control people to get rid of the rats,” Yeoh said.

“However, this is not a long-term solution as the rat problem cannot be solved so as long as there are food being disposed everywhere except in the rubbish bins,” she said.

Yeoh said she had asked the developer to order bins with lids to replace the current open ones.

“I’ve also raised the matter with the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) but the council said this is the job of the flats’ management committee (MC),” she said.

“However, since the residents are paying assessment taxes, it is therefore proper that hygiene and cleanliness be taken care of by the MPSJ but it insists that the rats running around the compound are the responsibility of the MC,” Yeoh said.

On the weekly pasar malam behind the flats, Yeoh said she was not sure whether the area was properly cleared of rubbish after the trading.

Some residents said that they had no complaint as the area was clean come morning.

There are also shophouses and a restaurant near the flats, but a survey done by StarMetro showed that the surroundings are quite well-maintained.

Yeoh said she was also aware that proper maintenance could not be carried out as some residents did not pay their monthly maintenance fees.

The residents who paid up said that it was not fair for them to suffer the consequence just because others refused to pay.

At the moment, the flats do not have its own joint management body (JMB) and is managed by the developer.

Yeoh said a JMB should be formed to allow residents to jointly manage the place with the developer until the strata titles were obtained.

“I’ve spoken to the new MPSJ Commissioner of Buildings (CoB) director Tee Siew Bee on this too,” she said.

Tee, when contacted, said she was new to the MPSJ CoB unit and had not been able to look through cases thoroughly yet.

However, as far as she is concerned, the meeting with the developer over JMB has not been called yet.

“If the need arises, we will definitely call for the meeting,” Tee said.

“The non-payment for maintenance is a problem everywhere in low-cost housing areas. We need to educate residents on why it is important to pay maintenance fees. Maybe some of them do not know why they have to pay,” she said.

“I’ve received many complaints on this,” Tee said.