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THE SMELL OF STALE URINE in public places is enough to make passers-by feel 'pissed off'. The Land Transport Authority, which maintains the Esplanade underpass when this picture was taken, said it was taking immediate action to clean the underpass and the affected areas. Urinating in public is an offence and first-time offenders can be fined up to $1,000. -- ST PHOTOS: WANG HUI FEN
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SOME people think the durian stinks, and unfortunately it could be true.
In the past month, passers-by near the Esplanade - otherwise known as The Durian - have complained of a persistent stench of urine in the area.
The pungent odour starts assailing those who take the escalator up to the Esplanade underpass from the CityLink Mall concourse.
One peeved reader, Ms Sheri Kristen Goh, wrote to The Straits Times Forum last month to say that she had encountered the stink twice.
Last week, The Sunday Times decided to do a check of the offending spot. It also flushed out other similarly smelly locations elsewhere in the city.
In the Esplanade area, the team found that the stench was strongest at the point before we stepped onto the ascending escalator.
Looking around, we found the source: the ceiling directly above us. It had turned black and had caved in. Wet stains were visible on the wall.
The team also found that the storeroom located above the escalator has been used as a urinating spot by loiterers in the area.
In spite of the 'No sleeping' signs there, hobos could be seen sleeping on cardboard boxes at the underpass at night.
Hotel bellman Naufal Alattas, 22, was skateboarding at the underpass one night last month when he saw, through the half-open door, a loiterer relieving himself in the storeroom.
'It's kind of gross,' he said.
Even if the storeroom, which has no ceiling, had been locked, it is still possible to get in through the low walls by climbing onto the parapet next to it.
Briton Ian Thompson, 53, and his wife, Sue, 50, who have been living in Singapore for the past nine years, said the stench gives 'a very bad image to tourists'.
Mrs Thompson added: 'It's unfortunate. Everywhere else in Singapore is very clean.'
Mr Thompson suggested installing cameras to deter people from urinating there.
A spokesman for the Land Transport Authority (LTA), which maintains the underpass, said immediate action is being taken to clean the underpass and its affected area.
She added, without elaboration, that the LTA was making arrangements to prevent further abuse of the storage room. She asked the public to alert the LTA or the police if they see anyone urinating in public.
Urinating in public is an offence. The National Environmental Agency (NEA) caught 41 people urinating in public places in town areas last year.
This year, it has caught 14 people so far. Of these cases, one was at the Esplanade underpass, while the other 13 were in Little India, said an NEA spokesman.
First-time offenders can be fined up to $1,000.
The Esplanade is not the only urine-related grotty spot. The Sunday Times did a check on 14 other places in town and found that some other locations stank from urine too.
Stairwells are a common problem area, made worse if the enclosed area does not allow air to flow freely. Most of the culprits are believed to be the homeless or drunkards.
At Lucky Plaza, one of the Orchard shopping belt locales plagued by the stench of urine, tenants complained about a staircase leading up to Lucky Plaza Apartment.
'Today is not so bad because it has been raining,' one 30-year-old shop assistant said last Wednesday. 'On hot days, the smell is really unbearable.'
Costume shop owner Patrick Wan, 48, likes to use the same Lucky Plaza staircase to go up to the carpark as part of his exercise regime. But he told The Sunday Times he has slipped on puddles of urine.
He said the problem has been around since he moved in, which was six years ago. Still, he can see the lighter side of things.
'I started a game with my children whenever we have to walk past the staircase. We would say, 'Ready, hold your breath, go!' and run across the walkway,' he said.
Asked to comment, Lucky Plaza's management told The Sunday Times that it is aware of the problem and believes the culprits are drunk patrons of pubs in the building.
A spokesman said the building now has more closed-circuit TV cameras to monitor the situation. Security patrols in the evenings and after shopping hours have been stepped up too.
The spokesman said six culprits have been reported to the authorities so far.
Over at Hong Lim Complex, medicinal hall assistant K.Seow, 45, said he regularly sees men in their 50s and 60s relieving themselves at the stairwells and along the small alley between the shops and the complex's carpark.
'I don't know why they don't want to use the toilet. Maybe it's because of the 10-cent fee. So they treat these areas as their public toilet instead,' he huffed.
Dried goods store owner Kim Ng, who is in her 50s, has even spotted puddles of urine outside her shopfront, which is at the corner of the block.
She also witnessed, in disgust, a middle-aged man peeing in a corner of the carpark two months ago.
Such incidents cannot be good for the image of Singapore, said Dr Judy Siguaw, dean of the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality.
Dr Siguaw, who is from the United States, had her first and only public encounter here with a puddle
of urine at a stairwell of Funan DigitaLife Mall three years ago.
It was her second month in Singapore and she was shocked at the sight.
'When people talk about Singapore, they say, 'Oh, I hear it's really clean', even if they haven't been here before,' she said.
'If tourists see this, it will severely damage Singapore's clean image.'
chengwee@sph.com.sg
chenmy@sph.com.sg
What can be done about the urine 'hot spots' in the city? Send your comments to suntimes@sph.com.sg
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