GEORGE TOWN, Nov 15, (NST): The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) has urged the Housing and Local Government Ministry to investigate a viral video of a girl, who appears to be seven to eight years old climbing over the balcony railing onto the ledge of a high-rise building (presumably a flat).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She is then seen walking back and forth on the ledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to CAP president, Mohideen Abdul Kader, the ministry must probe the matter immediately and implement effective safety measures to protect children living in high rise buildings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As such, the ministry needs to investigate this immediately and implement effective safety measures to protect children living in high-rise buildings,” he said today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A video footage, showing the girl climbing over the balcony railing onto the ledge of a high-rise building (believed to be a flat) and proceeding to walk back and forth on the ledge, has been making its rounds in social media since last week.https:\/\/tpc.googlesyndication.com\/safeframe\/1-0-38\/html\/container.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The girl is doing this on what seems to be the 10th or 11th floor of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A short while later, she seems to hear a sound and hurries, with some difficulty, to climb over the railing to get back onto the balcony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The video footage, according to Mohideen, is showing something that is very real and horrifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“One wrong move and the child could have plummeted to her death. What is worrying is that this probably happens more often than we realise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We need to accept the reality that there will always be families with small children living in high-rise buildings, such as flats, because of financial constraints. We also need to understand that parents cannot be watching their children 24\/7, and children, being always curious about things, will not always listen and obey their parents about the things they have been told not to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“All a parent needs to do is to go to another room (not even leave the house) and their child could get into things that have been explicitly forbidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“For instance, we do not know the whole situation with the girl in the video, but the way she hurries to get over the railing and back onto the balcony indicates that she probably has been told to not climb the railing and knows she is doing something she is not supposed to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So what is the solution then?” Mohideen asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said, back in October 2018, the then Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin had said that the ministry would be looking into implementing new safety measures at high-rise buildings after several fatal tragedies involving children falling from the upper floors of buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Zuraida (as reported in the media), the Uniform Building By-Laws 1984 (UBBL 1984) has set that balcony railings (of tall buildings) cannot be less than one metre high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had also stated that she does not want houses to feel like prisons (by making the railings too high) but the ministry would relook the structure to see whether specifications need to be changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What has the ministry done about this since this statement was made in late 2018?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We believe that to avoid tragedies involving children and balconies, safety measures must be integrated into the structure of the building itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we can see from the video, the girl can climb over the railing onto the balcony ledge, meaning the balconies of that building are not safe,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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