Death traps

Uncovered manholes have become a death sentence for pedestrians and motorcyclists across the country. A few days ago, a two-year-old child fell to death in an open manhole in front of his house in the Model Town locality of Bahawalnagar in Punjab province. Locals held the municipal committee responsible for Mujeebur Rehman’s death. They claimed that manholes across Bahawalnagar have been lying uncovered for months.

Manhole lids are regularly damaged by rashly driven vehicles. At times, hasty municipal workers leave manholes uncovered after carrying out repairs or maintenance work. Municipal authorities and residents in Karachi and Islamabad have claimed that the theft of manhole lids has risen in recent years. Drug addicts have been accused of stealing lids and selling them at junk markets. They resort to different tactics such as breaking streetlights to avoid getting caught or identified. Although residents promptly lodge complaints with the authorities after a lid disappears, the replacement process usually takes a few months. Garbage piles on roadsides and pavements, narrowing down space for pedestrians further. This coupled with prolonged power outages at night results in several people either falling to death or succumbing to injuries leading to life-long disabilities.

Municipal authorities find it challenging to replace manhole lids frequently, particularly in larger cities like Karachi. Perhaps, they should do away with iron and steel lids altogether and resort to fibreglass manhole covers like in Faisalabad. Fibreglass has zero-scrap value and can easily resist heavy-weight vehicles and endure different atmospheric conditions. Evidently, the majority of the municipal authorities have long neglected the issue of missing manhole covers posing a threat to residents’ safety and well-being. It is about time they acted to end the problem once and for all.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2023.

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