Source : Straits Times - 16 Mar 2009
ENTER a lift in any of the 12 HDB blocks in Jalan Kukoh off Chin Swee Road and chances are you will be hit by the stench of stale urine.The pong hangs over the stairwells too.
The grassroots groups in the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng GRC have sprung into action to wipe out the neighbourhood’s stink, with a public education programme launched yesterday.
Central to it are A3-sized posters which will go up in the ‘hot spots’ to drive home the message that urinating in public is bad behaviour that inconveniences other people.
The identified hot spots include lifts, dark corridors, stairwells and the blocks of flats near the neighbourhood’s hawker centre. The posters also remind residents not to spit and litter.
And if they do not take a look at the posters, they will at least get constant reminders from their Member of Parliament Lily Neo when she does her rounds of the homes there.
Madam Ernawati Pan, who has lived in the estate for 17 years, said the blocks underwent improvement works last year to spruce them up, but the people’s habits have yet to match up.
The 53-year-old homemaker sees puddles of urine on staircase landings daily, during her morning walks down seven flights of stairs for exercise.
She said: ‘It’s really disgusting. The puddles will drip down the stairs onto the next level and I have to step around them. It’s very smelly.’ She is getting put off making her way down every morning.
Dr Neo said that the feedback she received on her visits to the blocks from upset residents spurred the campaign. She said that she hoped peer pressure would work on the residents and make them take ownership of their neighbourhood.
Following the launch of the public education drive in Jalan Kukoh for a start, the grassroots groups plan to launch it in the six other areas under the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng GRC by the middle of the year.
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