22-05-2025
Kota Kinabalu operators fined for food violations
Published on: Thursday, May 22, 2025
Published on: Thu, May 22, 2025
By: Sidney Skinner Text Size: City Hall personnel and their SSD peers worked together to carry out the operation on Monday. City Hall compounded eight food operators for contravening its Food and Eating Premises By-Laws 1966, during a check of eateries in the State Capital earlier this week. A spokeswoman for the agency's Environmental Health Department (EHD) said a penalty of up to RM500 could be imposed in such circumstances. 'Three shop-owners had not installed grease-traps according to our specifications, particularly when it came to the T-joint which is supposed to be part of the set-up,' she said. 'Two had failed to maintain this equipment, while another two were found to be releasing the soiled water from their kitchens into the common drain outside.' The last was taken to task for running his/ her business without a valid licence, according to her. These violations came to light during a Unified Grease-Trap Operation between City Hall and the Sewage Services Department (SSD) on Monday.
Advertisement Five SSD personnel were involved in the two and a half hour exercise which was organised by the former agency to deal with the sewage woes caused by the indiscriminate disposal of fats, oils and grease (FOG) at commercial outlets in one part of Kota Kinabalu. They were joined by 13 City Hall staff who were drawn from its Environmental Health and Engineering Departments. The joint SSD-City Hall team inspected nine outlets on Jalan Gaya and Jalan Haji Saman. The EHD spokeswoman stressed that the oily discharge entering grease-traps should be removed daily. 'Don't hold off cleaning the traps only till it becomes necessary to do so.' She said it was imperative that the unwanted cooking oil from commercial kitchens was dealt with responsibly. 'Proprietors should also avoid modifying the traps and adhere to our approved specifications. A 'T-joint' should also be put in place before the outlet from these devices and they should not be connected to the drainage servicing the shops.' A SSD spokeswoman said it hoped to make business-owners in the City aware of the proper method to get rid of the FOG from their activities. She admitted that the agency had been facing an uphill task mitigating the nuisance created by a manhole in a back-lane on Jalan Gaya which had been overflowing, on and off, since November. A preliminary inspection was made of Lorong Bank shortly after this problem came to light, with a follow-up check carried out in March, according to her. 'Our staff opened the inspection chamber (IC) for the problematic manhole and others along the road. They found the effluent past the brim,' she said. 'They set about 'sewer-rodding' the length of the pipes underneath the trouble-spots. Bits of congealed FOG were among the foreign objects strained from the sewage. 'We suspect that some parties may be flushing used cooking oil into the sewer-line.' She said one of the Department's tankers was subsequently deployed to the back-lane to pump out the effluent from the IC in a bid to offer the public in this part of the State Capital some temporary relief. 'A hairline crack was found in one of pipes during this de-sludging effort. This damage likely allowed the run off from the drains in the vicinity to enter the sewers. 'This may be a factor in why the manhole has been overflowing for as long as it has.' The spokeswoman said the SSD planned to the replace the sewer-pipes and install new ICs on the affected section of Lorong Bank. 'We are trying to obtain a wayleave from City Hall as this section of the road, including the pavement nearby, will have to be excavated in order to carry out this improvement,' she said. 'Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it should take at most three months to finish this upgrading effort.' * Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel and Telegram for breaking news alerts and key updates! * Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available.
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