ION Orchard hit by waste-water leak
SINGAPORE: ION Orchard suffered a waste-water leak
that closed off one section of its shopping complex on
Sunday.
The leak was confined to two high-end stores facing
the main street and both the Louis Vuitton and Dior outlets have
been temporarily closed.
The area was cordoned off and cleaning was underway
when Channel NewsAsia visited the scene in the afternoon.
A strong smell of waste water lingered in the air.
The management of ION Orchard said the leak was discovered earlier
in the day between 8am and 9am, and the flow was strongest at
noon.
Eyewitness Muhd Syahrul Nizam, who was there around 3pm, said: "You
can smell the... smelly smell. (At) the shop, Dior, water was
dripping from the ceiling.
"You could see from the outside, water was flowing down towards the
main street. From what I can see (the water) it's clear, but you
can smell the water and you know it's not clean water."
ION Orchard traced the leak to a choked internal pipe at Lobby B of
the building, next to the Louis Vuitton store.
It said the pipe carried waste water from its air-conditioning
system and upper floor kitchens.
Muhd Syahrul Nizam said: "They better do a check on the whole
entire building, see all the pipes. You never know! You may be
having your lunch or dinner, and then suddenly the ceiling will
just gush out all this 'wonderful' smelling water!"
However, many shoppers were oblivious to the problem.
"We....were inside and we tried to come out and it was blocked, on
both floors, but we don't know what happened," said a woman.
She added she did not smelled anything.
"We actually thought it was construction (works), and we were
surprised; we thought to ourselves 'how come they're doing all
these construction on a Sunday!'" said a man.
It is not the first time ION Orchard has been hit by leaks.
A sewage leak in July last year closed off the Jewellery Street
section at basement two of the mall.
ION Orchard said the clean-up will be completed by the end of
Sunday.
It is working closely with affected shops to enable their
re-opening as soon as possible.
It is also investigating the root cause of the problem.
- CNA/ir