By THO XIN YI
Worse than before: The erosion has almost reached the chain link fence around the pond.
THE soil erosion at the lake edge near Taman Mutiara Puchong has become worse and the residents want action taken immediately.
The problem was highlighted in StarMetro on July 17 last year but nothing has been done to tackle the problem.
“Now, after six months of consistent downpour, the soil has eroded further into the lake. Large crevasses have appeared up to the perimeter fencing,” resident Gerard Lim said.
He is worried that the problem may worsen in the coming months.
“The residents hope that the developer and the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) can respond positively with a permanent measure to rectify the problem and not wait for a bigger problem to happen,” he said.
The developer, when contacted in November, said the land at the side of the pond does not belong to them.
“The chain link fence represents the demarcation line between Mutiara Puchong and the other people’s land.
“We have surrendered the lake edge area (which was landscaped earlier) to the local council. Hence, it does not belong to us and neither does the pond.
“Since the land belongs to another party, technically, we cannot be held responsible for erosion control on their land,” it said in a statement.
However, the developer was keen to address the problem by constructing a couple of sumps at the affected area.
“Whenever it rains, the water will find a natural course to flow. In this particular case, the rain happened to flow from the landscaped area into the pond. Over time, this had created the erosion of the lake edge.
“We can collect the water into a sump and then channel the water through pipes directly into the pond. This will prevent the rainwater from causing further scouring of the slopes of the pond,” the developer’s statement said.
MPSJ councillor Chang Kim Loong told StarMetro recently that he was aware of the issue.
“I have submitted an official letter to the council to highlight the erosion problem, as well as the incident two months ago where fish in the lake died suddenly.
“Some said the fish died because of discharge from a nearby factory, while some said it was due to the change in the water temperature.
“The MPSJ will carry out investigation on these matters.
“I will drop by the MPSJ today to see what can be done to solve these problems,” he said.
A RESIDENTS FEEDBACK Dear Xin Yi,
Thank you once again for highlighting the issue of soil erosion at the lake edge of Taman Mutiara Puchong in StarMetro on Tuesday 6th January 2009.
It is nonsensical for the developer Malton to claim that the land at the edge of the pond does not belong to them when the developer themselves had dumped many truck loads of earth into the lake to prevent further structural cracking of the corner houses / units which till today left several unsold! I have photo evidence showing the original land area when we moved into our home in 2007 and the present extended land area of 50'ft further into the lake.
By the developer simply putting up the chain link perimeter fencing is not suffice to say that it is the demarcation line between Mutiara Puchong and the land of others! Strangely indeed, how does a developer surrender only the lake edge to the local council MPSJ when the entire Taman Mutiara Puchong has yet to be surrendered to the local council? Yet, residents of Taman Mutiara Puchong have for the past two years been paying the local council MPSJ "Cukai Taksiran"..Assessment Tax.
Obviously, the developer is "washing their hands" of this matter by pushing the responsibility to the local council MPSJ. I sincerely hope that the local council MPSJ would be quick-witted in handling this matter and not be coerced into accepting otherwise.
Best regards.
Yours sincerely,
Gerard Lim
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Cr Chang ReplyHi Xin Yi,
Thanks for highlighting the issue in the media in your StarMetro 6.1.09 issue titled ' Erosion at Puchong pond getting worse'.
The impending issues were deliberated in the Jawatankuasa One Stop Centre (OSC) MPSJ this (8.1.09) afternoon.
The Director of Enginering Dpt. En Adnan Derahman has yesterday (7.1.09) visited the site and is finalising his report to the committee.
The Director of OSC, En Norjafni has forthwith been directed to initiate a meeting to be chaired by Timbalan YDP inviting all the related developers; namely Malton, YTL, Glomac and Interpile as well as all the neighbouring RAs namely, Persatuan Penduduk Tmn Mutiara Puchong, protem committee Lake Edge and Lakeview to attend the discussion and to sort out the imminent problems in no uncertain terms.
As soon as a date and time is fixed, all are invited to attend and be heard. I shall notify you in due course and shall be at the meeting with Cr Ng Sze Han.
Regards,
Cr Chang Kim Loong AMN
Ahli Majlis MPSJ/ JKP Zon 9
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Taman Mutiara Residents Association Reply
Dear Cr Chang & Xin Yi,
Thank you for highlighting and bring up the soil erosion issue to the press and the relevant authorities to act before a catastrophe occurs; otherwise the Developer would be very famous for the wrong reason, and the owners of the affected houses (should the houses collapse into the eroded lake edge) would have their properties "gone with the water" and the whole Taman house value "gone down the drain".
From a layman's view, the cause was that there was no sheet piling done at the lake edge. The last soil collapse reached the last corner house whose entire garden and fence disappeared, which prompted the Developer's immediate action to re-fill hundreds of lorry loads of soil to maintain the lake edge to its present distance from the lake, as confirmed by Gerard's statement.
Rain water supposedly flows into drain holes at road curbs drags with them sand and mud, clogging the holes. Heavy downpour has been causing flood in this stretch next to the lake caused by the clogged holes. Flood water over flows to the lake edge and that's how the soil has been eroded so fast. The Residents' Association has proposed to the Developer rep to install pipes connecting rain water at the curb edge directly into the lake, but was turned a deaf ear probably due to cost factor and the common "contractually not obligated" statement. Instead, the Developer has dug a trench within and along the perimeter fencing and channel the collected rain water out to the same eroded spot, which is not a solution. In fact it would accelerate the soil erosion even faster.
Mutiara Puchong experienced not less than 6 times serious flooding. One of the causes was most of the sumps in front of each adjoining house was clogged by sand which impeded water flow to the monsoon drain just outside the entrance of the Taman. Rain water has to flow into holes at the road curb through underground drains to the bigger drain at the north near the TNB high tension area. This is an ex-tin-mine land and the amount of sand being flushed into the holes is massive. MPSJ has to maintain a routine schedule to clear the sump to avoid flooding recurrence.
Taman Mutiara Puchong RA look forward to the meeting with MPSJ, the 3 Developers and RA Committees, and we will bring along photos to support our findings and hope to find a solution to the erosion problem before a calamity happens.
Thank you again for your unrelented efforts to help house buyers in championing their cause, which if they fight alone would never be successful.
With regards,
Steven Poh
Chairman
TMP RA
