THE Sewage Services Department (SSD) is keeping tabs on its assets servicing Taman Kuala Manggatal to ensure that the sanitation in this part of the town functions as it should.
This action was prompted by feedback from a homeowner who claimed that the toilets in her premises had been malfunctioning “on and off for months”.
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She said the water in the bowls intermittently spilled over the brim, instead of receding, when the toilets were flushed.
The resident was under the impression that this problem could have arisen because the pump at the sewage treatment plant (STP) for her neighbourhood might be breaking down.
The individual provided Hotline with the pertinent details, regarding her grievance, which were forwarded to the agency.
A spokeswoman for SSD said its technicians went to Lorong Kuala Manggatal 3 shortly after learning about the incident in this part of the neighbourhood.
“Our staff opened several manholes on the reserve land behind the complainant’s unit,” she said. “The level of the effluent in these structures was observed to be high.
“They immediately set about ‘sewer-rodding’ the sections of the pipe-line which extended from one manhole to another.”
The housing road spans a distance of some 168.51 metres.
The agency’s personnel said as many as 20 manholes on the stretch, and surrounding area, were attended to during the visit, according to the spokeswoman.
Despite this, she said the affected pipe could not be adequately cleared to get the effluent moving.
She said the Department’s mitigation effort was complicated because many homeowners had extended their back yards into the reserve land where some of the manholes were located.
“A few of these individuals had even cemented over the manholes. On top of this, parts of the sewer-line were clogged with sand.”
SSD personnel also found bits of congealed fat, oil and grease (FOG) among the foreign objects strained from the sewage, according to her.
“We suspect that some parties might be flushing used cooking oil into the pipe.”
She said the agency’s concessionaire was subsequently roped in to flush the sewer-line with a high-pressure jet of water in order to dislodge the more problematic blockages.
A follow-up check of the manholes in the neighbourhood, including the one at the back of the complainant’s house, was carried out four days later, according to her.
“The levels of the effluent in these structures, as well in the ‘lagoons’ at the STP, were found to be low.”
On the homeowner’s claims that the pump at the plant was failing, the spokeswoman shot down this allegation, saying that there was nothing wrong with the device.
“Our staff inspected the STP on two occasions after being contacted by the media. The automatic pump was found to be operating like normal in both instances.
“This technician even checked the control panel for the device and found that the mechanisms inside were in good order.”
City Hall was contacted regarding the presence of FOG in the sewer line on Lorong Kuala Manggatal 3.
A spokeswoman for its Environmental Health Department (EHD) said the agency would work together with the SSD to tackle this problem.
“We hope our peers at the SSD will provide us with the location of those sections of the pipe which were clogged with the FOG as they know the sewer-line best,” she said.
“This information will enable City Hall’s Health officers to check on the goings-on at houses in the vicinity.
“We might even rope in our colleagues from the Building Control Department during this visit, so that they can identify any premises which has been illegally extended into the government land where the manholes are located.”
