Ehsanul Haque Jasim :
The roads of capital Dhaka are becoming unsafe day by day, as most of the manholes on various city roads have turned into virtual death traps for the commuters. But the concerned authorities are hardly taking any notice of this, alleged city dwellers.
The service-sector authorities, including Dhaka North and South City Corporations and the Dhaka WASA, are heedless in this regard. They said a large number of manholes remain open on various roads in the city for years, posing a serious threat to public, especially at night.
While visiting different city areas, it was seen that a large number of manholes remained without covers in major roads and alleys all around the city. Even the uncovered manholes are prevalent in the roads of the posh areas, like Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Dhanmondi.
The uncovered manholes in the low-lying areas become more risky during monsoon or the day of heavy downpour, as many of the manholes on the city roads go under water causing accidents and making virtually impossible for vehicles and pedestrians to spot the manholes.
The city dwellers said that a number of the manholes remain opened for years. Day in and day out, the uncovered manholes pose a dangerous risk to the lives of the commuters and the vehicles, Abu Bakar Siddique, a resident of Banani area told The New Nation on Monday.
“The concerned authorities are not taking the issue seriously even after filing of complaints,” he alleged.
Syed Saiful Alam Shovan, an environment activist who resides in Dhanmondi area, told this reporter that many manholes in Dhanmondi area are uncovered for long time. Expressing dissatisfaction over the poor service of the authorities, he said that they tried to draw the attention of the concerned authorities for several occasions, but their efforts went into vain.
However, the officials of the WASA (Water and Sewerage Authority) and the two Dhaka City Corporations claimed that they cover all the manholes, but the thieves and drug addicts steal the iron tops of manholes in night for meeting their drug cost. With the increase of the number of drug users for last few years, stealing of manhole covers is also being increased day by day.
Eng Taqsem A Khan, Managing Director of Dhaka WASA, said that the WASA has a large number of manholes. The covers of the manholes are often stolen and sometimes they find difficult to replace the covers, as the lids are not always available, he added. He also said that they are trying to resist the stealing but they can’t set up check points in each manhole.
Officials of the WASA said that the drug addicts sell a manhole top for a very small sum of money. A cover costs is around Tk 2,000 while the thieves sell it for about Tk 200 only. The officials said that they are now planning to make covers with ‘Ducktile Cast Iron’ which does not have any resale value.
BM Enamul Haque, Chief Executive Officer of the Dhaka North City Corporation, said that they monitor the condition of the manholes regularly.
He, however, admitted that it becomes difficult for them to replace the missing and damaged manhole covers due to fund shortage.
The heedless of the authorities was questioned following the dead of much-talked-about 4-year old Zihad, who fell in an uncovered deep pipe belonging to the Railways in December 26 last year.
On June 23, 2014, a street child also fell into a manhole in city’s Arambagh and died. His elder brother jumped to recover his brother. He also died and his body was recovered by the fire brigade personnel. But the body of the boy was never found as he was washed away.
It was said from the side of the government that the Dhaka City Corporation was divided into two parts to ensure better service for the city dwellers. But the city dwellers are deprived of proper service from the authorities. Prevalence of a large number of uncovered manholes all around the city is a glaring example in this regard, said some city dwellers.
