Deadline for securing water tank covers extended: PUB
The national water agency PUB has extended the deadline for buildings to bolt their water tank covers and replace the locks used to secure them and the doors leading to the rooftop.
The deadline, originally set for Friday 1 July, will now be pushed back to 31 December. PUB said the town councils had given feedback that they would need more time to undertake the tasks.
These security measures follow the discovery of a body of an Indonesian maid in a water storage tank at a HDB block in Woodlands in May. A Bangladeshi worker has been charged with the murder.
Other than bolting the water tank covers and using high quality locks with non-duplicable keys, PUB also raised, in May, several other measures that town councils, building owners and companies that manage buildings have to introduce to beef up security.
They include stricter control of authorised personnel and restricting key holders to only authorised personnel and will still have to be implemented by 1 July.
The town councils told The Straits Time (ST) they needed more time to call for tenders for lock manufacturers. Some 80,000 new sets of locks, costing about $3.35 million, are needed for the water tank covers and doors leading to the roof where the water tanks are located.
So far, none of the town councils have replaced their locks.
In total, there are about 50,000 tanks on some 14,000 buildings that have to be bolted.
Coordinating chairman of the PAP town councils Teo Ho Pin told ST it will take two to three months to secure all water tanks.
The Sembawang Town Council, which manages the block where the maid's body was found, has already called for a tender on new locks.
The Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, which is managed by the Workers' Party, said it will comply with the new requirements on restricting roof access from Friday. It will also implement the other security measures due on Dec 31 'where feasible', said a spokesman.
A spokesman for City Developments Limited said that it has already started securing some 50 water tanks in the 15 buildings it manages. It aims to complete the process by mid-July.
