IPOH: The Perak Welfare Department will provide counselling session to a retired teacher, Chung Sook Khuan who has been living amidst rubbish piled as high as four feet at her home in Taman Bersatu, Simpang Pulai here.
State Women Development, Family and Community Welfare chairman Datuk Dr Wan Norashikin Wan Noordin said that several departments including Welfare and Health would hold a meeting today pertaining to this issue.
"They will evaluate her mental health prior to providing counselling session to the retired teacher.
"We will also call up her husband and three children to assist us in this issue," she said in a press conference after meeting the 63-year-old woman at her home today.
Wan Norashikin said the neighbours here have been complaining about the smelly rubbish at her home.
"I convinced her that she needs to dump the rubbish at the designated places and not at her home as it can be harmful to the neighbours here.
"As we know, the dumpsite is a place for mosquito breeding and the neighbours here are not comfortable with the environment and its surrounding," she said.
Wan Noorashikin said that the state government would assist the senior citizen to ensure she would have a better living condition.
On the pile of rubbish, she said the Ipoh City Council (MBI) would collect the rubbish today and she hoped the teacher would give her cooperation.
"It will take some time for MBI to collect all the rubbish at the two-storey home but it needs to be done due to the unhealthy surrounding," she said adding that the woman needed to climb over the rubbish to enter her home.
Yesterday, the New Straits Times reported that the retired teacher has been living in this condition for some 10 years.
It is not something residents in the area are unfamiliar with, as the woman who lives alone, loves to collect garbage.
The rubbish is mostly comprised of domestic waste such as food, plastic bags, cardboard boxes, tin cans, plastic and glass which emit a foul stench, especially when it rains.