GEORGE TOWN — Thump! A piece of rubbish fell onto the zinc roof of an awning covering the entrance of the Jalan Sungai public flat here.

This was followed by a few more thumping sounds as trash such as plastic bottles, food debris and packets of leftover rice rained down from units above the People’s Housing Project (PPR) flat.

“This is normal and this is considered mild compared to seven years ago,” a long-time resident, Zainol Abidin Shariff, told Malay Mail.

In 2010, a man waiting at the entrance to the flat was killed when a fist-sized stone fell on his head.

“It was 11am at that time, he was a taxi driver so he usually waited in his car but that day, he got out from his car and was standing there when someone threw the stone out the window and it hit him. He died immediately,” Mr Zainol said.

The incident was a wake-up call for the residents and the PPR committee. Immediately after that, CCTVs were installed facing the windows of the two blocks of 21-storey building.

“The moment anyone threw anything, it is recorded on the CCTV and we will identify them and report them to the local council for further action,” PPR committee member, Muhammad Nayim Othuman Mydin said.

He said the local council will issue warning notices to the resident and it is after the third notice that the resident will be evicted.

“I feel that issuing notices is not enough. Harsh actions should be taken immediately, the moment anyone is recording throwing something out their windows, they must be evicted immediately,” Mr Zainol said.

He said he would often tell off those whom he saw throwing rubbish out their windows and remind them that their own parents, children or relatives could be on the ground floor.

“It was so common to have packets of leftover rice, curry, empty bottles and soiled diapers being thrown out that even once, the former committee chairman here was walking around the grounds when a soiled diaper fell on his head,” he said.

This month, the windscreen of a vehicle was shattered from an object thrown from one of the units above.

Though the CCTVs captured most of those responsible for such acts, Mr Muhammad Nayim said sometimes the CCTV footage was blur especially when it was raining or at night.

“This is the old CCTV analogue system so it’s blurry and sometimes, it can’t record clearly so we hope the state will consider changing the system to a newer and clearer one,” he said.

With the 12 CCTVs - all linked to the police and the Penang Island City Council - and tough enforcement action, incidences of things being thrown out of windows and corridors have reduced drastically.

“It was really bad between 2001 and 2010 but after that, it slowly improved and now we can say the incidences have reduced by 80 per cent compared to previously,” Mr Zainol said.

They also believed that the involvement of the community helped reduced such incidences as those who saw others throwing rubbish out the windows would immediately report it to the PPR committee’s office or guard.

“It is a good thing that the community here wants to help each other to stop such incidences and we hoped to reduce such incidences by 95 per cent,” Mr Muhammad Nayim said.

BEWARE OF FALLING BODIES

The Rifle Range low-cost flats in Penang is well-known for being the oldest high-rise residential building in the state as it was built in 1969.

Since it was the first high-rise building, it also became a popular spot for suicidal people to jump off the top floors of the flats.

“From the 1970s up to the 1990s, we regularly have people jumping to their deaths here, to the point that people avoided walking across the centre court area because that’s where their bodies usually fall,” said Loh Eng Kim, who has lived in Rifle Range since 1971.

There are nine blocks of flats in Rifle Range, two of which are now PPR units while the remaining are privately owned low-cost units. There are about 3,700 flat units in the whole project.

“Nowadays, we have lesser suicide cases since there are so many high rise buildings everywhere but we still have the same rubbish-throwing mentality here. If you look at the awnings at the entrances, you can see the amount of rubbish gets thrown out,” Mr Loh said.

Things such as food waste, soiled diapers, boxes, flower pots, cans, glass bottles and even a small television were often thrown out the balconies of the flat units.

“If you think that’s bad, we have had people dumping faeces out but usually we can’t find out who did it,” he said.

He said the only solution to this is to get everyone involved and be responsible for the shared spaces as a community.

“The problem now is that if someone saw a neighbour throwing things outside, they’d rather turn a blind eye and ignore it instead of reporting them. We need to help each other to stop such behaviour but sadly, it is very hard to get people here to cooperate,” he said.

Mr Loh said tenants in the PPR blocks can be evicted if they were found to have done dangerous things such as throwing heavy items out the windows, but nothing can be done to those living in their own privately-owned units.

“The problem with these people is that they won’t admit to doing it even if someone saw them doing it. So I think we must install CCTVs to catch them in the act,” he said.

However, when it comes to detecting rotting corpses, the residents are very helpful in immediately contacting Mr Loh to track the source of the odour.

Mr Loh, who is the Rifle Range local community chairman, said some residents would call him and tell him there was a strange smell next door and he would go up to check.

“Since this is a very old project, we have a lot of elderly people and many of them lived alone, so they died alone and it would go undetected until their bodies started rotting,” he said.

He said he had been called to check on so many cases that he immediately knew the smell of rotting flesh.

“These are old people who died of natural causes, except that they lived alone, their deaths were undetected until many days later,” he said.

Drug addicts’ dens, non-payment of maintenance fees, lack of cleanliness and illegal homestays were some of the other issues that those living in high rise buildings faced.

While indiscriminate littering is not as prevalent in higher end apartments, there are also other issues such as the collection of maintenance fees or ensuring units are not used as illegal homestays.

According to Taman Kristal Joint Management Body chairman Gerald Mak, there are still those who throw rubbish such as bottles and plastic bags from their balconies, but it is very few and far in between.

“We used to have illegal homestay issues, but we have resolved that and now it is the usual issue with collecting maintenance fees from unit owners as some tend not to pay,” he said.

Over in PPR flats and low-cost flats, one of the most worrying issues was drug addicts using vacant units as their dens. Some loiter around stairwells.

According to Mr Loh, drug addicts would usually hide at the rubbish disposal area or if they notice vacant units, they would break in and live in there.

“We tried everything — reporting them, turning them out, but somehow they keep coming back and they are so good at escaping that each time we make our rounds to find them, they have disappeared,” he said.

Mr Mak said there was still a need for more awareness among high rise dwellers to be more responsible as a community.

“They have to learn to be more responsible not only for their own units, but also for the common areas especially when it comes to cleanliness and safety,” he said. THE MALAY MAIL ONLINE