By Sam Cheong

Malaysia: PETALING JAYA'S Section 17 has received a lot of flak for being one of the dirtiest areas in the city.

StarMetro highlighted several dirty eateries around Jalan 17/38 and this has drawn some attention from our readers who live there.

Resident H.W. Cheah, who contacted StarMetro recently, said a wet market in this part of the residential area was a breeding ground for rodents.

"This is a perennial issue as vegetable, poultry and fish waste are left on the roads that are now riddled with large potholes.

"The discarded produce and meat items become an easy food source for pests.

"Each time it rains, the drainage here becomes clogged and rats from the sewer would come into the homes in the surrounding area," he said.

Rather than depending on the authorities, Cheah took matters into his own hands and placed rat poison to get rid of the rodents.

However, his plan backfired. Instead of picking up dead rats around the market area, he had to go to his neighbour's home to remove the carcasses.

"The rats which ate the poison would make their way to our homes to die. It was a daunting task to remove their rotting remains."

Other than Cheah, numerous readers had also complained about the Petaling Jaya City Council's (MBPJ) lack of supervision on hygiene standards.

One such person is Robert Chan who complained about foreign workers at coffee shop stalls washing eating utensils and plates on top of a drain cover.

"There is a corner coffee shop that serves great food here at Jalan 17/29. But the sight of an Indonesian woman washing up next to a drain puts me off.

"I noticed that food scraps are also conveniently thrown into the drain and, when I took a closer look, there was a layer of hardened oil on the surface of the drain water," he said.

Chan added that MBPJ should despatch their health inspectors to ensure that food handlers in the neighbourhood were vaccinated against typhoid.

"It's a dangerous situation. Since most of the eatery owners and their workers are doing extremely well, they should not forsake hygiene and compromise the safety of their customers."