BY LO TERN CHERN
Garbage is strewn all over the Teluk Indah Flats courtyard.
THE two blocks of low medium- cost flats in Teluk Indah, Prai, continue to be an eyesore despite efforts by the Seberang Prai Municipal Council to clean up the place by mobilising workers and providing more garbage bins.
It all boils down to the attitude of residents who are still discarding rubbish all over the place including throwing their garbage out of their units.
In July last year, councillor David Marshel, who was fed up with the filth, put up a banner which read ‘Tahniah Teluk Indah Blok E Flats Terkotor Di Pulau Pinang. Adakah Anda Bangga? (Congratulations Teluk Indah Block E Flats, dirtiest in Penang. Are you proud?).
A month later, a major cleanup was held with the participation of residents, council staff and contract workers hired by the flats’ Joint Management Body (JMB).
They wore T-shirts bearing the words ‘Saya Bukan Pengotor’ (I Am Not A Dirty Person).
However, when a team from The Star revisited the flats yesterday, they saw that the flats were still dirty, especially Block E2.
The visitors saw bags of garbage being tossed out of the units. As they landed on the cement floor in the courtyard, the bags burst and the waste was scattered all over, leaving food leftovers for rats and other pests.
Garbage is strewn all over the Teluk Indah Flats courtyard.
The building on the inside is also dark with leaking pipes wetting the floors.
Residents have placed plastic sheets and discarded banner materials to cover the walkway outside their unit entrances. The steel railings of staircases are rusty and broken.
At the playground between Blocks E1 and E2, the once grassy square is littered with rubbish. Crows feed on the food leftovers.
Cars and motorcycle occupy the open space. The structures for children to play have been vandalised and can no longer be used. Both the swings are broken.
There is graffiti painted with love declarations. The five public phone booths can still be used.
The check showed more than half of the units have satellite television dishes.
When approached, residents were too ashamed to talk about the condition of the place except for a 48-year-old clerk, who wished to be known only as Fatimah.
The former resident was spotted returning to her place to collect rent from her new tenant.
“I stayed here for nine years. I moved out about two years ago because I lost hope that the place would ever be clean again.
“It is not only dirty but disgusting,” she said.
“I blame the residents. They find it more convenient to toss the garbage out the windows instead of walking down to the garbage bin.
“There are cleaners who clear the garbage thrown into the courtyard but people keep dirtying the place daily.
“Once a cleaner was injured when a bag of garbage landed on his head while he was cleaning,” she said.
A sundry shop owner, who declined to be named, said rats continued to be a menace as there were ample leftovers for them.
“There are rat burrows everywhere. I keep placing rat poison in the burrows to prevent the rodents from entering my shop,” she said.
“I'm losing business because customers from outside don’t want to come here,” she said.
The flat's JMB chairman K. Sivakumar, 43, said he was disappointed with the attitude of residents.
He said the cleaning up of Block E2 was hampered because only one of the three lifts was working.
Sivakumar said a broken lift in Block E1 was repaired recently at a cost of RM21,000.
He said there was a total of 1,008 units in the two 21-storey blocks but only about 300 unit owners were paying the monthly RM30 maintenance fee.
“Some of the units are vacant. Some owners who have rented out their units to foreigners refuse to pay the maintenance fee since they are not residing at the flats,” he said.
When contacted, Marshel said the attitude of residents needed to change first or the flats would continue to be labelled the dirtiest in the state.
“We have placed two roll-on-roll-off large garbage bins at the back of the flats.
“We have also placed extra dustbins at the corridors of each floor but the residents are not using them.
“We have tried our best to help them. We are exhausted,” he said.
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