First Floor Resident at Simei Splashes Water on the Ground to ‘Chase’ Away Passers-by; Other Neighbours Concerned for the Passers-by

If you live in an HDB, you will have encountered your fair share of unreasonable residents or even have been involved in a neighbourly quarrel of your own.

However, this resident at Simei has a unique way of solving problems without turning to verbal arguments or physical violence.

Not happy with people throwing rubbish and talking loudly when passing by the corridor in front of his home, a first-floor resident at Simei Street 4 Block 235 resorted to splashing water on the corridor to discourage passers-by from using the corridor in the first place.

It would have been a pretty ingenious method except that the solution itself is a problem of its own.

A slippery problem

This issue was pointed out by one of the resident’s neighbours during an interview with ShinMin Daily News(新明日报).

The 61-year-old neighbour, Mr Lim, told the reporter that for the past few months, he always sees a pool of water on the first-floor corridor in front of this resident’s home.

He was worried about the safety of passers-by.

He was quoted as saying although there’s another path that passers-by can use outside the apartment, most will use the corridor within the apartment whenever it’s raining or if it’s too hot outside.

“However, there will always be a pool of water in front of one of the first-floor houses there. I have a bad back and if I slip and fall, it would be very dangerous for me,” he added.

The other side of the story

Prior to talking to Mr Lim, the reporter had interviewed the owner of the home with the pool of water in front of his house as well.

The owner is a 70-year-old man called Mr Weng.

He has lived here for more than 5 years and there will always be people passing by his home talking loudly, disrupting his peace and quiet.

Some litterbugs even throw tissue papers, used face masks, cigarette butts and other rubbish in front of his house.

He even once found a pile of dog poo! Ewwwww!

Due to this, he started splashing water on the corridor to discourage passers-by.

The water he used is clean (not the soapy sort) and are “leftovers” from washing windows. He doesn’t wash his windows every day either.

Neighbours don’t understand why he has to splash water on the floor

During the interview, he said, “My neighbours only see the pool of water and complain about it, but they didn’t know that I have my own set of problems too which the water has helped to solve.”

“I’ve been cleaning up after these passers-by all this while, and when these passers-by talked loudly, it’s not like the noise is disturbing my neighbours either,” he added.

He hopes that the litterbugs will stop throwing rubbish on the corridor in front of his house and that passers-by will be more considerate and lower their voices when walking past his home.

Mr Weng also hopes that people will use the path outside the apartment block rather than the corridor in front of his house unless it’s raining.

Not only is the path outside a lot wider, but it will also reduce the disruptions that he experiences every day.

“I actually don’t mind if people want to use the corridor in front of my house, but the thing is not everyone can keep their voices down and not litter when passing by.”

Well, that’s unfortunately very true!

Fighting poison with poison

Mr Lim claimed that Mr Weng is using the wrong method to solve the problems he encountered.

It’s like fighting poison with poison (以毒攻毒).

The 61-year-old neighbour said that he wasn’t aware of the issues Mr Weng was experiencing, but he still thinks that Mr Weng shouldn’t have resorted to such “extreme” measures.

He added, if someone really slipped and fall because of the pool of water Mr Weng splashed in front of his house, then he would have created a much more serious problem for himself, causing him even more undue trouble.

What do you think? Are you “Team Mr Weng” or are you “Team Mr Lim” … or you’re “Team Neither” because you have an even better solution?

Featured Image: Google Maps