'Sewage' spills all over shops' floor & furniture at SingPost Centre, stench 'unbearable'

Apparently, a pipe had burst.

Tanya Ong | September 06, 2019, 04:23 PM

A local preschool enrichment centre with its premises at SingPost Centre in Paya Lebar has had to cancel their classes on Friday (Sept. 6) abruptly after a pipe allegedly burst and soaked its entire carpeted floor with waste water.

Mothership learned about this from a parent, Elizabeth Soh, who sends her daughter to the centre, called School of Concepts, for classes. She told us she received images of the soiled floor from the centre on Friday morning, alerting parents to the situation.

Soiled carpet & furniture at School of Concepts

Responding to queries from Mothership, a School of Concepts (SOC) representative confirmed the class cancellations, saying that their carpet and furniture had been "soiled" by what was described as "sewage".

They were told it had spewed from the floor earlier in the morning.

Staffers apparently first discovered this when they arrived at the premises at around 8:45am.

Subsequent communication with building management, they said, revealed that a pipe had burst.

This is a photo of the carpet, which has been completely "soaked" with the waste water:

Photo credit: Elizabeth Soh

Photo credit: Elizabeth Soh

The representative shared this image of what the carpet looked like previously:

Photo courtesy of School of Concepts staffer

SOC's representative said as well that their classes for the weekend were cancelled as a result of the "unbearable stench".

Their carpet and furniture will also need to be replaced, they added.

More tenants possibly affected

Separately, a reader contacted us with photos of the floor of a neighbouring shop, My Greatest Child, a children's bookstore.

Here are the photos of the soiled floor at My Greatest Child:

Photo credit: Reader contribution

Photo credit: Reader contribution

Their floor was originally green and white.

It is unclear exactly how many tenants were affected by the spill, but both shops are located on the second floor of the mall.

Mothership has reached out to SingPost, which owns SingPost Centre, to find out more about the incident and will update this article when they respond.

[UPDATED on 6 September at 5:09pm: Adding comments from SingPost]

SingPost detected backflow at 2am

In response to Mothership's queries, SingPost said that they are "aware of a backflow incident", which affected some tenants on the second floor of SingPost Centre.

They clarified that the backflow was from a kitchen waste, and not sewage, pipe.

According to SingPost, the backflow was detected at 2am on Sept. 6, but they were unable to access the pipe in the affected shop until it opened for business at 10am. Unfortunately, water had seeped into the two adjacent shops by then.

"SingPost activated more than 10 crew to assist in general cleaning of the area and shampooing of the carpet," they said.

They also added that all affected shops resumed operations by 3pm. Only three tenants were affected.

Top composite image courtesy of Elizabeth Soh & reader contribution.

Content that keeps Mothership.sg going


??

Do you remember the last time you used a passbook?

??

"In this day and age, you barely have enough time for sleep, let alone reading. That’s probably why you’re reading this on your phone on your way to work, your only free moments."

??

Learn the secrets behind magic tricks. Spoiler alert: it's science.

?

Adulting 101: We teach you how to pour beer properly. The kind with a lot of foam on top.