House front concrete drive way a problem to DBKK drain maintenance

by : Hiew King Cheu

Hiew and Edward Ewol Mujie inspecting the driveway without access hole.

      

The clearing of the blocked drains in front of the houses in many areas in Kota Kinabalu City has become a major problem to the KK City Hall. This is due to the house owners constructed their concrete driveway in front of their houses without leaving an opening for the purpose of clearing away the blockages underneath the concrete slabs. The blocked drain has caused overflowing and flooding to the houses. 

This was disclosed by the MCA Luyang Assemblyman Hiew King Cheu after he had visited many areas having this problem with the engineers from the KK City Hall. The blocked drains would not be easy to clear when there is a long stretch of thick concrete covering over the drains. DBKK workers sometimes could not dig out the items deep inside the covered drain had to give up the task.

House affected by blocked drains in Luyang

Hiew pointed out that it is the house owners who have to be considerate not to cover the drains completely when they are upgrading or widening their house front driveways. Very often beautiful concrete driveways were built but leaving no access holes for the drain cleaning. This is especially so when the roadside drain is small and narrow. 

Once it is blocked, it is impossible to clear the blockage underneath the concrete slabs. Hiew said he had personally tried to clear one blockage himself, and found it impossible. The only possible way is to break the concrete slab to create a hole big enough to get the blockage cleared out. 

Hiew after having consultation with the DBKK engineers on this problem, he advises the house owners to construct some access holes with covers over the drains on the concrete driveway to allow for easy cleaning of the drains. 

If DBKK can not clear the blockages underneath the driveway, their workers will have to break a hole on the driveway to reach the blockage. This operation will be very costly to all. Therefore the cooperation of the house owners are very much appreciated and needed.