PPRs need volunteers to monitor safety
Residents must set up a special community to enforce rules, says Noh Omar
SHAH ALAM: There are fire safety measures in place at People’s Housing Projects (PPR) but a monitoring community must be formed to enforce safety standards and for equipment to be maintained.
Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar said he had gone on numerous visits to the PPR and found ample hose pipes and fire hydrants.
“However they are often poorly maintained or have parts missing,” he said.
“I have seen a place for the hydrant but the hose is missing.
“The ministry will provide help on the condition that these PPR residents must form their own fire-fighting community of volunteers.
“If there is no one responsible for the equipment, then we are afraid that they may be lost once we’ve fixed it,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.
Noh was responding to comments by Fire and Rescue Department director- general Datuk Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim who said that older PPR could be potential fire hazards.
Wan Mohd said new PPR passed fire safety requirements and adhered to regulations but that was not the case with the older developments due to the deteriorating conditions of the buildings.
He said one of the contributing factors might be a lack of maintenance.
Wan Mohd urged PPR residents to adhere to fire and safety regulations, including not carrying out illegal renovations that might block emergency exits and walkways.
Meanwhile, the Penang government will carry out programmes and workshops to educate PPR res- idents on the dangers of throwing objects out from the upper floor windows.
State Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said they should be more civic-conscious.
He said he had ordered the state Housing Department to work with the Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC) to conduct awareness workshops and programmes in all PPR housing schemes in the state.
“The residents’ mindset must change,” he told a press conference at Taman Manggis PPR flats yesterday.
Jagdeep said the state government was shocked over the tragic incident where a 15-year-old boy died after being struck by an office chair, believed to have been hurled from an upper floor of a flat in Pantai Dalam, Kuala Lumpur.
Jagdeep said the state Housing Department had monitored PPR units constantly.
Last year, the department issued 28 notices related to violations such as obstructing common spaces, illegal extensions and renovations, littering and other activities that caused danger and disruption to residents.