NEA is helping Cashew Heights solve its rat problem

Help is on its way to get rid of the rats threatening the health of Cashew Heights residents.

The National Environment Agency has said it will show the management of Cashew Heights what to do to eliminate the rats.

It said the first thing that needs to be done is to catch some of them to ascertain that they are indeed rats and not garden shrews.

Shrews can be recognized by their pointed heads.

Once it has been established that the rodents running around Cashew Heights are rats, the NEA will tell the MC what to do and help it to implement the necessary measures.

The NEA wants evidence of the rats' existence even though the MC of Cashew Heights has already confirmed that the rodents are indeed rats.

In the minutes of its meeting in July, the MC stated that the rat population in Cashew Heights has increased.

3.6    Pest Control MA reported that the estate rat population is still increasing, especially around the Pool, BBQ and Restaurant areas. MA will need to get rid of their food source and poison them actively.

Pest Control contractor has been instructed to put rat poison in the bin cute (sic) areas and to seek and introduce rat poison into the rat barrels (sic), to monitor and destroy the rat barrels (sic).

extract from minutes of MC meeting on 23 July 2012

 Even though the problem has worsened, the MC has yet to inform residents about it by issuing the notice it had promised in its previous meeting.  The least the MC can do is to tell residents that there is a problem, that steps are being taken to solve it and what they can do to minimize the threat to their health.

"The rats in Cashew Heights did not come from us" say town council, LTA and contractor

The LTA, its MRT contractor, and Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council have denied that the rat problem in Cashew Heights is the result of MRT tunnelling works and an increase in rodent population in the nearby HDB estate.

The Management Council of Cashew Heights had in its minutes of meeting alluded to both the LTA and the Bukit Panjang HDB estate being the culprits.

The Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council, in response to queries, said its HDB blocks are rat-free.

"We do not have a problem with rats. In fact, we have a "rat attack" programme in place from September 2011 till August 2013 which the Town Council had collaborated with NEA to identify and eradicate any rats within the HDB estate.

You may ask your Management Council to inform us if they had spotted any rats in our HDB estates and we will get our Pest Control to address the problem."

Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council

The LTA and its contractor for Cashew Station also stated that the rats in Cashew Heights could not have come from their MRT work site.

"Tunnelling for the Downtown Line at Cashew Station is now 22 metres underground. That's too deep for rats. If rats had come from the MRT tunnel, Cashew Heights would have felt the effects one and a half to two years ago.

All construction sites follow strict NEA guidelines. Environment officers check regularly for water ponding and pests.

The Cashew Station site has a canteen where workers eat. They are not allowed to eat anywhere else on site and all food scraps and rubbish must be disposed of properly.

We will call the NEA and get them to check. But we are sure they won't find anything."


LTA and contractor for Cashew MRT Station

So what does the NEA have to say about this?

Watch for its response in the next post.