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CITY Hall and the Sewage Services Department (SSD) are working together to minimise the likelihood of effluent soiling the common areas around the Kg Air area, including those on Lorong Sentosa.

To this end, the former authority has been cracking down on grease-trap violations at eateries in this part of the State Capital, while the latter has stepped up efforts to maintain its assets servicing the different of blocks of shophouses here.

A City Hall spokeswoman said 12 Kg Air food operators were compounded for not complying with the agency’s requirements – as regards the grease-traps in their premises – earlier this year, during a joint operation involving its Environmental Health Department (EHD) and the SSD.

She said a penalty of up to RM500 could be imposed in such circumstances, under City Hall’s Food and Eating Premises By-Laws 1966.

“Seven eatery-owners were taken to task for not maintaining their grease-traps at the time,” she said. “Two others were chided for not even having this equipment at their premises.”

She said the rest were penalised for releasing the oily discharge from their kitchens directly into the common drains and failing to install the traps according to City Hall’s specifications, particularly where the T-joints, as well as the inlets and outlets, were concerned.

The spokeswoman said one of the pair, ticked off for not installing grease-traps in his/ her kitchen, ran a shop off Lorong Sentosa.

Officers with City Hall’s Food Safety and Quality (FSQ) Unit checked on this premises again in the middle of March and at the beginning of April, according to her. 

“The eatery-owner was verbally instructed to hurry up and obtain traps in the first instance. During the follow-up check, FSQ staff noticed that he/ she had bought this equipment but the traps were merely decorative. They had been placed beneath the sink but had not even been connected to it.”

She said the proprietor received a heftier compound on that occasion for not taking the agency’s instructions seriously.

“FSQ personnel returned to the eatery last week and were pleased to see that the grease-traps had been put in place as they should. Our Health Officers provided the staff with technical advice on how to clean the equipment and dispose of the blobs of fat trapped inside.”

The spokeswoman stressed that the oily discharge entering grease-traps should be removed at least twice a week, if not daily.

“Don’t hold off cleaning the traps only till it becomes absolutely necessary to do so.”

She said it was imperative that the unwanted cooking oil from commercial kitchens was dealt with responsibly.

“The unwanted blobs of fat should be removed with an ‘alat pengaut khas (special scoop)’ and placed in a closed container before being disposed of.

“Such disposal should not, by any means whatsoever, involve throwing this material into a ‘saluran air awam (public water ways).” 

On top of this, eatery operators should also avoid modifying the traps and adhere to our approved specifications, according to her.

“A ‘T-joint’ should also be put in place before the outlet from these devices and they should not be connected to the drainage servicing the shops.”

A SSD spokeswoman admitted that the agency had been facing an uphill task mitigating the nuisance created by the overflowing manholes along Lorong Sentosa.

“We were made to understand that effluent had been seeping through the rectangular manhole covers and soiling the common areas here for some time,” she said.

“The proprietor, who highlighted this occurrence to us, bemoaned the nuisance posed by the foul odour coming from parts of the walkway which extended for about 26 metres.

“She was of the opinion that the stench was not good for her business. Many potential customers were apparently put off by the bad smell which permeated the back lane where her premises was located.”

A preliminary inspection was made of the stretch shortly after the Department learned of the shop operator’s grievance, according to her.

“Our staff opened the inspection chamber (IC) for the problematic manholes along the road. They found the effluent up to the brim.”

She said bits of fats, oils and grease (FOG) were observed to have congealed around the circumference of many of the pipes underneath. 

“We suspect that some parties may be flushing used cooking oil into the sewer-line.”

She said one of the Department’s tankers was subsequently deployed to the area. This vehicle could contain up to 8,000 litres of effluent, according to her.  

“Three of our technicians worked to pump out the waste from the manholes. They also carried out ‘sewer-rodding’ to try and break up the bigger chunks of FOG which were clogging the pipe.”

This was done to offer the public in this part of the City some relief, according to her.

“Given the business owner’s feedback, we will try to have the pipes here de-sludged more often in a bid to alleviate the sewage woes which she and her peers have been experiencing.”