The residents of Block 639 in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 had to endure a fetid smell for two days after part of the void deck was flooded with faeces caused by a choked pipe.
The Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) said preliminary investigation showed that an “underground pipe was choked”, resulting to fecal matter to spill out at the void deck.
The Town Council said on Monday (7 September) that it is investigating the cause of the pipe choke.
A spokesperson from AMKTC told Channel News Asia that the incident first started last Thursday morning (3 September).
“The incident started with a resident who (gave) feedback that the water in his toilet was unable to flow down his gully trap,” the Town Council explained, adding that the issue was fixed on Thursday itself.
However, on Friday morning, it was informed of another incident with “an overflowing of fecal matter at the void deck”.
As a response to this new complaint, the Town Council cordoned off and cleaned up the area, the spokesperson said, adding that public safety and public health considerations were “paramount”.
“To prevent further recurrence, we have temporarily diverted the waste matters into the manhole.”
As for the exact cause to why the pipe was choked, the spokesperson said that it is still under investigation.
In the recent general election, People’s Action Party (PAP) maintained its stronghold at Ang Mo Kio GRC after the party secured 71.91 per cent of the votes, beating Reform Party who garnered 28.09 per cent of the votes. The PAP five-member team was led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Upon hearing this news, many netizens slammed AMKTC for not being efficient in doing its job. Calling it “useless”, online users said that the Town Council is slow in responding to issues, pushes problems to other people and never double checks the work done by sub-contractors.
Penning their thoughts on the Facebook page of Channel News Asia, some online users asked if the reaction would be the same if such a thing happened in Workers’ Party-run constituencies like Sengkang, Hougang and Aljunied, or constituencies with higher support for alternative parties. A number of them also wondered if PM Lee will personally go and look into this matter given that Ang Mo Kio is his own ward.
Others condemned the Town Council for not walking the ground to find out issues faced by residents. They added that the Town Council always waited for people to raise a complaint first before taking any actions. One user also questioned what the Member of Parliaments (MPs) for the GRC are doing, given the high salary that they get as an elected MP.
