At least four shops flooded after drainage system overflows at Bukit Timah mall

SINGAPORE: A drainage system caused inconvenience to at least four shops at Bukit Timah Shopping Mall when it overflowed, resulting in businesses suffering damage to their products and equipment. The incident occurred at around 12 noon last Sept 27, on the ground floor of the shopping mall.

As reported by Shin Min Daily News, it was discovered that a minimum of four shops were damaged by the incident, including a laundromat, a beauty salon, a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, and a piano academy. With this, some of the shop owners moved their water-soaked items outside, and some staff were busy cleaning up the water inside their stores.

A 34-year-old owner of the affected traditional Chinese medicine clinic stated in an interview: “We notified the mall management that day, and they sent people down to assist with the cleaning. However, we later hired another cleaning company to do a deep cleaning, but the same problem occurred again in less than a week.”

Furthermore, he admitted that it was caused by the overflowing drainage ditch, and the sewage was constantly gushing out of the store's drain, rising very quickly and flowing to their store in less than 15 minutes. The business owner also claimed that the cardboard boxes where they put medicinal herbs such as ginseng, hawthorn, astragalus, and poria got wet, and they were worried about contamination, resulting in them throwing these away. A newly purchased infrared lamp in the store was also soaked in water, and the incidents were estimated to have caused a loss of about $2,000. 

With regard to the other business affected, the piano academy revealed that the floor of the store was damaged by the water, resulting in a loss of over $1,000. As for the laundromat, the business admitted that the flooding not only affected business but also increased the workload of employees.

The affected businesses now hope the mall management will identify the cause of the repeated drainage issues and take preventive measures to prevent further problems in the future. 

In other related news about Singaporean business, there was a report where some of the shops in Little India had been illegally displaying suitcases for sale on the street. 

There are photos that are circulating online that show dozens of suitcases densely packed on the road.

Read more about the news story here.