Stagnations from Siltations

I am so encouraged by the keen response of Kerajaan Negeri Selangor and the Ministry of Health re my blog on blocked drains in my corner of Ara Damansara, somewhere in the enclave of PJU 1A/22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32 (22-32). And I am so pleased to see that it is truly in sync with the YAM Sultan of Selangor’s call to the State Government to be efficient in community and environment services featured in The Star 22/May article titled Sultan expresses concern over wasteful spending of RM27million allocation!

Of particular relevance in that report is YAM’s statement quoted “He said local governments should ensure roads and drains were in good condition, towns were always clean, waste management was efficient and streetlights functioned properly.”

Thank you YAM; I am truly grateful for your poignant remarks on the affairs of your State. The rakyat of Selangor are most fortunate that we have a modern and visionary ruler.

With the direction towards a better and cleaner Selangor steered by YAM, I am emboldened to bring to light other unsightly and uncivic shortcomings in and around Ara Damansara so that this district in PJ which I call home, lives up to the expectation in beautiful name conjures.

On my daily walks, I constantly notice the goings on in the environment of Ara Damansara. I cannot ignore the siltation in the large drains as a result of the continuing development in this area. The following picture is of the large monsoon drain that separates PJU 1A/22-32 from PJU 1A/19-27 the next enclave. There is a whole terra ecosystem living in this drain from all the siltation that has flowed down in the development of Ara Damansara. With the amount of earth washed up here, trees will soon start to grow. Water-flow has definitely slowed down, maybe even almost completely blocked further upstream of the drain, further increases chances for mosquitoes and other vermin to breed. I’m pretty sure the residents of PJU 1A/21, 30 & 32 fear snakes and other less welcome creatures of nature, will soon wander into their homes. Perhaps some have already had snakes already….





Now let’s move along to what started out to be a really beautiful community park between PJU1A/23-25 and PJU 1A/29. Before the construction of Ara Hills began, the water in the run-off stream was free-flowing and clear of silt. But not anymore.
Here’s the Google Earth link to show how visible the siltation is. It is so thick that even the satellite picture can pick it up. Too bad the clouds are hovering over Ara Hills, else you could appreciate the full extent of the siltation.

AraDamansara community park 1A/23-25,29

And here are some down to earth shots of the almost fully silted up run-off stream. The water-lilies are beautiful, but their beauty is marred by the growing ugliness of the silt.









As mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am impressed and grateful for the prompt response by the authorities at the top end of the community government. The State Government and Ministry of Health are the movers and shakers of the do-ers. It is now my hope that enough moving and shaking has rattled through the offices of the do-ers so that what needs doing GETS DONE.

I’m keeping my hopes up for the new State government’s new broom to sweep clean. You can DO IT

Dengue ~ the scourge of Selangor

I cannot help but laugh cynically that the government, be it local, state or federal are serious in their fight against the dengue scourge. So much about dengue has been reported in the media recently, but as far as I can tell, most of the blame is heaped on the tax-paying citizen. What are the authorities doing to clean up their own act?

I need not go far to see the extent of lackadaisical attitude of all the authorities involved in ensuring The Rakyat have a safe environment to live in. I just walk out of my house in Ara Damansara, my neighbourhood.

When we first moved in, I voiced my opinion to my spouse loud and clear, that the authorities must be truly blind or stupid or both to allow such a design for drains in Ara Damansara. I’m talking about the enclave of PJU 22 – 30. You can see clearly from the photo attached, that the drains are covered, but not completely. The concrete blocks covering the drains have hand-hold cut-outs in the event the covers need to be pulled off to allow human access to the drain. So far I haven’t seen any human accessing the drains simply BECAUSE THEY CANNOT!



In designing the covers this way, debris continuously falls and flows into the drain. Debris that doesn’t wash away such as sticks, stones, leaves, trash etc. It becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other vermin. Just view the next few photos as I stuck my hand with camera through the hand-hold cut-outs to reveal the ecology in these covered drains.






Then what about when renovations are in progress, and the contractors are irresponsible? Concrete mix pours into the drain, and as long at they can’t see it, why should they bother to clean it? This pic below shows concrete set into the drain, obstructing the smooth flow of water, causing water to stagnate for the propagation of mosquitoes. This drain runs directly under my front gate.



Needless to say, my house swarms with mosquitoes. I hardly ever see anyone sitting out in their garden enjoying the evening breeze BECAUSE WE ARE LITERALLY EATEN ALIVE if we dare to do so. Visitors tell me that I invite mosquitoes due to my plants and water features. My testimony to all of them is that when I used to live in Bukit Maluri, Kepong; I also had loads of plants and water features, yet we hardly suffered any mosquitoes and could sleep with windows wide open sans mosquito-net nor air-conditioning. Drains were not covered and could be cleaned easily to prevent blockages.

We complained to MBPJ and sent them similar photos posted here. We got a commendation letter and a visit from MBPJ for a first hand view of the evidence, that was the extent of their reaction. No further action to remedy the ridiculously designed covered (well, almost covered) drains.

My complaint is not only to MBPJ but to the Housing/Health Ministry, whose guidelines either do not regulate the design of drainage, or if it does, then MBPJ for allowing such a design to proceed when it is obvious at first sight that this sort of drain coverage breeds death and disease.

To end the scourge of epidemic diseases, regulations must ensure loopholes in designs for community development are tightly sealed. The majority of rakyat takes it cue from the government. So BUCK UP please and put some money where your mouth is and end the lip-service.

BusStop for who?

I have no idea how bus-stops in Petaling Jaya are commissioned, but I’m sure there must be a flowchart for the process which involves various relevant parties like the bus company since they are providing the service. I would think that the route is recce’d and proposed locations of the bus-stop shelters are tabled for approval.

I live in Ara Damansara, RapidKL Route T607, the bus travels the road directly behind my house and there are 2 bus-stops nearby, across the road from each other. One on the incoming journey (get-off), and the other on the outgoing journey (get-on). I also took the bus one day for the experience and to learn the route.

Recently construction of bus-stop shelters began around Ara Damansara, commendable effort, but is it? People use the bus-stop shelters to WAIT for the bus. The bus-stop shelter is not of much use to people getting off the bus. So when the construction of an ultra-modern bus-stop shelter was appointed across the road from my house I could only shake my head in dismay. Obviously whoever’s task it was to appoint the location of these shelters had no idea of the logistics of RapidKL’s Route T607 because the bus-stop shelter is located on the incoming get-off side of the route, not on the outgoing get-on side.



The picture attached speaks volumes, see the poor soul waiting for the once-an-hour bus while sitting on the road-kerb; looking longingly at the brand new shiny bus-stop shelter across the road where passengers get off the bus as it journeys into Ara Damansara. To be fair, 2 other bus-stop shelters are appointed on the outgoing route. I guess 2 out of 3 ain’t bad normally, but what do you think each of these bus-stops cost ~ easily RM10k +.

Then of course there’s the route to think about as well. I experimented the route one day, as my 70+ year old mother lamented that when the service first started, Bus 607 would take her to Carrefour in Subang Jaya, so easy she was gleeful at the independent freedom while I was at work. She’s from out of town and does not drive. A few months later on another visit, she was looking forward to another independent visit to Carrefour, but the adventure she endured was just too much for a “warga-emas” to bear, no more Carrefour en route.

So I took the bus to see what the fuss was about. Again where’s the wisdom? I believe buses serve a public purpose and there is no wisdom in a route that does not pass a mall, school and if possible a medical facility. People who use the bus, apart from working people are those who don’t have cars, the elderly and the school-children. Rapid RouteT607 does not pass any of the high-traffic amenities mentioned above. T607 merely takes its passengers to the Kelana LRT station where all get off and have to change to other buses to take them onward. How idiotically inconvenient? The kids who go to school in Kelana Jaya have to get off on the opposite side of the murderous LDP and cross over to their school.

Isn’t it also a logical presumption that a bus route should cover as much high-density population areas? Well take a ride on T607 and discover how wrong my logic is. Would you put a bus route through PJU 1A/41 which plies the high-rise Crimson Damansara or cut back into Ara Damansara on PJU 1A/1 which is waste land on one side and upmarket landed properties across?

PJU 1A/41 [high-rise Crimson Damansara] t-junctions onto PJU 1A/40 which passes the length of Taman Putra Damai, Lembah Subang an extremely high-density residence. No, instead T607 turns into 1A/1 [another RM10k+ bus-stop here] so that it’s passengers can view the scenic wasteland; then it cuts through the bottom end of Taman Putra Damai via a narrow dirt road that is deeply potholed.

By the way, PJU 1A/40 also runs alongside the Putra LRT’s non-station depot. But that gripe is for another blog… keep tuned.

Why oh why do we pay rates to pay non-sense to provide for our community?