Open manholes put residents, motorists on the edge, endanger lives

Across Lagos State, there are several manholes but many of there covers have disappeared, thereby, endangering commuters and motorists plying the roads. From Oshodi to Ikeja, Alausa, Marina, Lagos Island to Abule Egba, Anthony, Ikorodu Road to Surulere, there are several manholes whose covers have been removed.

While some of these open manholes are in the middle of the roads, many others are on walkways. Also, while some of them caved owing to wear and tear, especially those with concrete covers, majority of the manhole covers, mostly those made with metals and irons disappeared to illegal activities, like stealing.

Furthermore, it was noticed that in some places within the city, the contractors executed the drain part of the road projects without covering the manholes or in cases where the slabs were produced they were not placed on the manholes.

Surprisingly, it seems government is unperturbed in checking the increasing number of uncovered manholes in the state. And the open manholes are in various sizes, while some are minimally dangerous, the big ones pose serious threat to both commuters and motorists.

This is because some of the manhole covers have disappeared for quite some time now and the government has not taken any effort to replace them as well as devise a means to permanently check the stealing of these manholes.

Some of the manholes in the middle of the roads are so wide that a vehicle, especially cars cannot run through them without the car tyres getting stuck in the manholes. Similarly, the manholes become more precarious at night because on many of the roads, there are not streetlights or where there is, the lamps are not functional.

In addition, some of the open manholes have become inlets to dump refuse, sand and wastewater by some residents, with some of the manholes already blocked. It was also observed that road sweepers, particularly those who sweep major roads often pour the sand they sweep from the roads into the manholes.

However, worthy to mention is that some of the manhole covers disappeared in front of residential and commercial buildings despite the facilities are being manned by security guards who keep watch over the entrance and surroundings of the buildings.

For instance, around the Bode Thomas area of Surulere, virtually all the manholes along that corridor have disappeared yet it is a highly commercial area with many of the buildings having security guards on duty almost 24 hours of the day.

Even the manholes at the end of Marina Road that is directly opposite one of the entrances to the Lagos House Marina were removed including about two at the end Broad Street, meters away from the State House.

And many residents including motorists have had negative experiences moving on Lagos roads as a result of the uncovered manholes. A motorist, Dele Ogunmola stated that he once ran into the manholes around Anthony while moving from the service lane into the fast lane. He said that his tyre got punctured with the rim dent.

There have been many incidents of commuters who fell into manholes because of poor visibility while moving on the walkway, as the roads are not lit. Effort to get the state government to comment on what it is doing to check the stealing of the manhole covers and to replace the ones stolen were not successful. Questions were sent to the Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Works, but he was yet to respond to the questions.