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SINGAPORE: "Generous" would not begin to describe the mountain of relief supplies donated by members of the Myanmar community here for survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
The problem? This three-tonne avalanche has proved a little too much to handle, leading to a dispute between Myanmarese volunteers and the building management of Peninsula Plaza.
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And the upshot is that the planned month-long donation drive will now be cut short, with collections to be wrapped up by today or tomorrow, one volunteer told Today.
Since last week, boxes and bags of donated items have been piling up in the common corridor on the fifth floor, outside a shop space used by the local Myanmar community as a library.
On Tuesday night, after receiving complaints from other shop tenants, the building management told volunteers to clear out the items, mostly clothes and canned food.
The building's security manager said: "Nobody was manning the items as they streamed in. As such, these started to block the way to the toilets and were stacked against the glass walls of other shops. Suppliers also found it difficult to deliver their products to the shops in the vicinity."
The management had also warned the volunteers a day earlier that the heaps of items constituted a fire and security hazard.
According to Mr Myo Myint Maung, one of the volunteers, the group had to mobilise up to 30 people on Tuesday night to move the donations — weighing an estimated 3 tonnes — to a Tuas warehouse that the Myanmar community rented.
But more donations poured in yesterday. And last night, the Peninsula Plaza management offered the volunteers the use of a walkway area at the loading bay as a temporary storage area.
Volunteers had already been making use of that space, in addition to the fifth floor, for storage. And the volunteers did not think it would be big enough to hold the donations that would continue to pour in, according to the library's owner Mr Maung.
Another volunteer, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "We had already been told to clear out once. We may be told to do the same again. That is why we are cutting short our donation drive."
The building's security manager told Today: "We have told them of our offer and will allow them a one-day grace period to sort out their logistics."
Myanmarese businessmen own about 25 per cent of the shops in Peninsula Plaza. When Today dropped by yesterday, at least two of them had donation boxes placed outside their shops to collect money for the victims of the May 3 cyclone.
A few piles of donated supplies — though smaller than the earlier piles captured on mall security cameras — were stacked against a wall on the fifth floor. - TODAY/sh
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