The Star Online – Sep 05 8:42 PM
By RASLAN BAHAROM
RENOVATION work purportedly for a swiftlet farm atop a five-storey block of low-cost flats in Kampung Boyan, Taiping, has irked the residents.
They fear that the building may collapse and that the bird droppings may be hazardous to their health.
“The renovation work started about a week ago,” said housewife Norain Ariffin.
Norain, 45, and her husband, Mohd Said Awang, 53, has been staying in their fourth-floor unit for the past eight years.
“We have bought the flat. We may have to move out from here but where are we to go?” she asked.
Norain said one of her neighbours queried a man who was accompanying some workers in-volved in the renovation work.
“The neighbour was told that the Taiping Municipal Council had given approval for the renovation,” she said.
Another resident, pensioner Zakaria Ibrahim,70, said apart from the bird droppings, there would be noise pollution.
He said operators of swiftlet farms would usually attract the birds with recordings of their chirping, causing a nuisance in the neighbourhood.
Aulong assemblyman Alfred Ng who visited the flats recently said swiftlet farms were not allowed within housing schemes.
He added that this was stated under the local council by-laws.
Taiping Municipal Council secretary Shahrom Datuk Malek confirmed that the operation of a swiftlet farm was not allowed in residential areas.
