PUBLISHED ONJune 23, 2024 12:43 AMByLim KeweiThe owners of a TCM hall in Chinatown are at their wits' end after taking multiple hits from bags of urine and trash thrown out from a flat located above the store since last April.
Sheryn Tay, 24, told AsiaOne on Wednesday (June 19) that the urine-filled plastic bags often land on the grassy area outside her family-run business Ping Min Medical Hall, located on the ground floor of Block 4 Sago Lane.
The killer litter would drop about once or twice a week, and sometimes on several consecutive days.
And in 99 per cent of the cases, the bags would burst open upon hitting the ground, causing the pungent liquid and tissues to spill out, she said. Orange peels and food wrappers would occasionally be found inside the bags.
The store's display and waste bin have been struck by the wet tissues, and their awning ripped by the litter.
Even passers-by sitting at the nearby pavilion have not been spared from being splashed with urine, said Tay, adding that the smell of the human waste "intensifies when [the weather is] hot".
Describing the situation as "really annoying", she explained that the litter has deterred the family from installing shelves and displaying their products outside the store.
"We have been engaging in talks [with a contractor] to mend our awning but have not been able to finalise the plans as there is no point in installing a new awning if the [littering] does not stop.
"While we do hear people complaining about the smell, thank God that business has not been affected much as we rely mostly on repeat customers and neighbours."
Over the past year, Tay's family has reported the high-rise littering issue about 20 times on the OneService app.
They sought help from Jalan Besar GRC MP Josephine Teo on May 6 and said they lodged a police report online immediately afterwards.
A surveillance camera was subsequently deployed for two weeks from May 16 to 30, which Tay said is the longest period of time that they have gone without seeing any litter.
A letter from the National Environment Agency (NEA) dated June 4 sent to Tay and seen by AsiaOne stated that there was "no high-rise littering act captured during the surveillance period".
It added that NEA officers had conducted an inspection at the block and served formal advisories reminding residents to refrain from throwing litter out from their units and the penalties if caught doing so.
"We will evaluate the site to assess for a re-deployment of our surveillance camera at the block to complement our ground inspections," said NEA in that letter.
"While we work on this, our officers will continue to keep a lookout for any high-rise littering act(s) during their inspection rounds in the area and work with the town council to mitigate the issue."
Tay told AsiaOne that the bags of rubbish were thrown down again on June 7, 10 and 13.
In a TikTok video on June 13, she opened the plastic bag, which revealed numerous food wrappers. A liquid, which she said is urine, had dampened the floor.
And on Saturday morning, Tay told AsiaOne that a bag landed outside the shop. She called the police.
She said that her family is thinking of installing personal surveillance cameras to catch the culprit in action.
AsiaOne has reached out to NEA for more information.
NEA said it investigated around 29,000 instances of feedback involving high-rise littering a year from 2021 to 2023.
Over the same period, the agency also deployed an average of 2,500 cameras annually, and conducted about 1,100 enforcement actions against people caught committing high-rise littering.
To deter such acts, NEA said it has been placing standees displaying information on ongoing surveillance or localised statistics on offenders caught at flats with persistent high-rise littering feedback.
Individuals found guilty of littering from a residential flat face a fine of up to $2,000 for their first conviction, $4,000 for their second one, and $10,000 for third and subsequent convictions.
A corrective work order requiring offenders to clean public areas for up to 12 hours may also be imposed by the court.
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