Residents Plant Banana Trees In Potholes To Alert Authorities

Kedah residents plant trees in potholes

Malaysian roads are generally well maintained. But coupled with heavy traffic, our tropical climate and more leading to annoying – and oftentimes dangerous – potholes on our roads, we run into the risk of bumpy car rides when repairs don’t happen quickly.

To garner the attention of authorities over the issues of potholes in Kedah, unnamed locals there opted for a creative method – they planted banana trees in two potholes that had not been fixed for over two years.

Banana trees planted in two-year-old potholes

The pothole incident in Kulim, Kedah, was highlighted by Facebook page Penang Kini on 6th December 2021. According to the now-viral post, residents in Junjung were unhappy with potholes that had been there for over two years.

As such, anonymous individuals took it into their own hands to call attention to the disastrous road conditions – by planting banana trees in the potholes so the Kulim Kedah Municipal Council (Majlis Perbandaran Kulim Kedah) would take notice.

The result is a nearly two-metre tall banana tree found on Jalan Komersial Junjung, and another in the middle of a hawker centre, as reported by Utusan Malaysia. Photos shared by Penang Kini showed just how unusual the sightings must’ve been for residents there, with the trees sprouting from the ground in the middle of the roads.

Image credit: Penang Kini

Statements from residents in the area to Utusan revealed that the banana trees popped up on a Sunday morning, on 5th December. They believed the creative patch job was done by dissatisfied individuals, whose identity they did not know.

Other residents also chimed in that they hoped the banana tree incident would spur the local authorities into quickly repairing the deteriorated roads in the area.

Image credit: Penang Kini

In the same report by Utusan, authorities have reportedly removed the trees at 11AM on the same day that they were spotted. However, it was not stated whether the removal was followed up with repair works.

Penang Kini’s post had many netizens in the comment section praising the residents in Junjung for their creative way of tackling the road situation, with over 4,800 reactions and 200 shares garnered on the post.

Unnamed individuals plant trees in potholes in Kedah

Potholes are unfortunately something that Malaysian road users often come across. When repair works are not carried out quickly, potholes can become dangerous threats to vehicles and its drivers too. So we hope that authorities can look to patching them up quickly for the safety of all road users in Malaysia.