Town councils looking to step up supervision of rooftop
work
TOWN councils may soon step up supervision for work carried out
on HDB rooftops, as a way to tighten the security of water storage
tanks, said Dr Teo Ho Pin, the coordinating chairman of PAP Town
Councils.
'We have to be more alert and vigilant, and I will discuss this
with the town council general managers, as well as get advice from
the police,' he told The Straits Times yesterday.
He made the comments in light of Monday's incident, where a
Bangladeshi cleaner is alleged to have gained access to a rooftop
water storage tank in Woodlands before dumping the body of an
Indonesian maid there. The cleaner, who is believed to have had
keys to the roof, has been charged with her murder.
It has raised questions about how strict town councils are about
access to potentially sensitive areas like HDB block rooftops,
which house water tanks.
Dr Teo said town councils will reassess if there is a need for
property managers and supervisors to maintain greater on-site
presence when work is carried out on the rooftop. Any work that is
carried out on the roof is supervised. But there is no rule
stipulating how long supervisors must remain on-site, as the
duration of the work can vary.
Dr Teo described what happened on Monday as a 'remote incident',
and said that in his 20 years of managing town councils, he had
come across only one rooftop breach. That was in 1994, when a group
of teenagers cut the lock on the roof access door and went up to
'enjoy the scenery'.
Dr Teo had on Thursday assured Singapore's HDB residents that
town councils require doors to roofs and individual water tanks to
be padlocked. An added security measure has been put in place since
the incident - only town council staff and emergency units, such as
lift rescue crew, will have roof access.
Newly elected MP for Sembawang GRC Vikram Nair said it is still
unclear how the Bangladeshi cleaner, who is hired by a town
council-appointed subcontractor, had gained access to the water
tanks. According to Mr Nair, the subcontractor who oversaw the
cleaner was not supposed to have a key to the roof.
'So something went wrong here, and we don't know whose fault it
is. The police are investigating and we will have to wait for it to
come out in court before we know exactly what happened,' he
said.
-- ST
