Skip to main content

Drains...longkangs...call it what you will.




Drains are a major concern in my work. When friends ask me, 'What's the most frequent complaint you attend to?'. You've guessed it...drains! Clogged drains upset people to the extent that they ring me up at 2 am to disturb my peaceful slumber.






However, clogged drains lead to problems like dengue and pollution. It is common for fallen leaves to cause clogging in drains. Stagnant water provides a great breeding ground for mosquitoes. Councils provide regular drain cleaning services on a monthly basis. Contractors are hired to ensure the cleanliness of drains. It becomes my job to monitor the level of service provided by these contractors.







Some of the drain problems I face in my area are:-






  • Delays in carrying out drain cleaning jobs by contractors



  • Improper disposal of rubbish removed from the drains by contractors



  • Illegal modifications by home owners who cover their drains with concrete slabs, making cleaning of drains impossible



  • Dumping of waste into drains (I had the shock of my life once, when I found a 3 seater sofa lodged firmly inside a monsoon drain!)



  • Plants and vegetation which shed leaves into drains and distrup the flow of water



I have had plenty of "Gotong Royongs" to deal with these problems. The response is usually lukewarm at best. Most of residents feel the council is solely responsible for the upkeep of their drains, which is true to a certain extent. However, residents play a vital role in keeping their drains clean; responsible management of household waste and proper clearing of fallen leaves from their gradens help alleviate problems.




Most drains have a long life span unless there is a severe case of soil erosion which destroys drains. Service roads in a residential area can't cope with heavy vechiles like lorries or trailers, as this causes drains and roads to sink and collapse. Although councils regularly spend money on the maintenance of drains but now, as contruction materials become more expensive, repair costs have escalated.

If you have problems as those discussed above do forward your complaints to the local councilor of your area. In addition to this, complaints should be accompanied with photographs.








Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MAPARBEMPCO

During the 1970's, a land dispute between First Southern Land and the residents of Barangay Mapantig occurred. First Southern Land occupied all available tracts of land to the consternation of the residents of the area. People were driven away from their farms and some were even taken to court and imprisoned. Upon facing serious resistance from the company, the villagers gave up and some even moved to different locales in order to survive when the land was taken from them.  When the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform programme was implemented during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, the villagers saw an opportunity arising to get back their land.  However, the company applied for a deferment of 10 years which delayed further the implementation of the land reform programme. Finally in 1998, the Department of Agriculture decreed that the land being occupied by the Kenram Estate (the name of the plantation) would be subjected to agrarian reform. The residents who w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Giant Slayers - Asian Agri vs. Serikat Buruh Sejahtera Indonesia 1992

PT Andalas IntiAgro Lestari I surveyed this plantation yesterday which is located in Aek Kuo, Labuhanbatu Utara. It is part of the plantations under Asian Agri (Oil Palm Producer) in North Sumatra. There about 400 workers employed in this plantation, non-management staff. There are various tasks done by workers, harvesting, spraying, fertilizing and general work. Women work as daily wage workers or as 'buruh harian lepas' as they are known here. They earn IDR 61,000 per day ( RM19.29) working from 6.30 am to 1.30 pm. They carry out a range of tasks - spraying (semprot), segregation fertilizer (menguntil), weeding, census taking, maintenance and fertilizing (memupuk).  Women's participation Women are recruited by the management of the plantation but not as permanent workers with benefits. These women's husbands work on the plantation and are permanent workers or 'SKU'. The work tasked to women is part of the plantation's production. Some ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Learning to Mentor

Background I had a wonderful opportunity to attend a useful workshop organized by the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM) in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). The workshop was entitled 'Women Mentoring Development Programme' was attended by over 40 women from various fields: civil society, small and medium level entrepreneurs, training and education.  The training was conducted in English by two master trainers who have had experience in mentoring women entrepreneurs. They presented a comprehensive workshop structure which included personal mastery, skills mastery and process mastery. We started with discovering our basic personality attributes to understand our prominent characteristics. We were introduced to a local developed personality assessment tool the LEONARD Personality Inventory. It was quite interesting to discover one's strength and shortcomings based on the analysis.  I am going to highlight some of the elements of the worksh...
1 comment
Read more