Death traps lying open in Rawalpindi

Both posh and suburban areas of Rawalpindi city suffer from open manholes. During rainy season the streets get flooded, and then it is all the more difficult to see an open manhole, a dug-up road or a pit. They can lead to accidents during daytime itself but they become all the more dangerous during the night time.

“Open manholes and ditches are a hazard to pedestrians but the authorities prefer to look away. Your next step could be your last step as well. Open manholes, drains whose covers have vanished and potholes that can put ditches to shame,” says Ali Asghar from Shah Khalid Colony.

“A survey of a few localities in the city can reveal that open manholes are not even barricaded or demarcated by the authorities concerned. The residents instead have placed tree branches to alert commuters. You can see such scene at the entrance of our locality near T. S. Stop,” says Laraib Ali, living in Tajabad near Airport Link Road.

The city is a minefield of sorts for school kids even for adults, given the state of pavements and streets. Manhole lids going missing overnight, stone slabs being lifted off pedestrian paths and roads dug up and left unattended to for days, have now assumed alarming proportions,” says Niaz Hussain, living in Mangraal Town.

“Manhole lids with steel bars have constantly been susceptible to being stolen. Rationale: The steel in them fetches good money in the market. It can be reused,” adds Niaz Hussain.

Salamat Hasan from the same locality says: “Let me tell fairly and squarely, more to the point, several hotels have this horrible practice of opening the lids and dumping waste in the manholes. Slabs covering the roadside drains too are stolen. Or they are removed to clean blocked drains and not put back.”

“Roads are dug up for underground cable work or water connection. They either remain open for months on end or are filled up loosely so that at the first whiff of rain the soil settles down and opens up a dangerous ditch,” says Fizza Ali from Gulzar-e-Quaid neighbourhood.

“Open manhole and roads that are dug up are without delay attended to by our people,” says Moeen Ali, an official from the concerned department. “Most roads that continue to remain dug up are mostly unauthorized ones concerning residents of the area. They remain unattended to mainly because the house owners never bother to fill them up after laying the pipelines,” adds Moeen Ali.

Samar Naqvi, a civil engineer, who runs a construction company and lives in Airport Housing Society, says: “I think it’s high time the authorities brought in more rigorous laws to deal with open drains and missing cobblestones. A stringent law must be brought in and enforced. Those stealing manhole lids and lifting slabs off the pavement must be penalized.”

“If need be the municipal bye-laws must be amended for the purpose. Only the fear of enforcement and the knowledge of consequence will deter people from going ahead with slab lifting,” adds Samar Naqvi.

 “The safety of the people must come first. I think the contractor appointed by the civic body to dig up the roads must be given the contract to fill them up as well. I believe that a single window system solely to look into problems linked to water connections, manholes and maintaining pavements would render the city safe for its residents,” suggests Shafaat Hussain from Judicial Colony.