KARACHI, Sept 19: The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board has been so reluctant to learn any lessons from the death of a child after a fall into an uncovered manhole last Satruday that it has made little effort to cover the thousands of manholes in the city that are still open.

Admitting that around 5,000 of the total 250,000 manholes in the city are still uncovered, sources in the KWSB, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that though a huge amount is spent almost every year on getting thousands of concrete manholes built, nobody knows where they are placed and why they are not issued to the staff concerned despite the fact that a number of people had fallen victim to the open manholes in the recent past.

“There are many open manholes in suburban areas of the metropolis such as Orangi, Malir, Khokarapar, Saudia Colony, Korangi, Landhi and New Karachi. One can even see a number of open manholes on various major roads of the city including New M.A. Jinnah Road near Islamia Science College, main University Road and Rashid Minhas Road,” sources said, adding that a large number of uncovered manholes can also be spotted in different localities of the old city including Ranchorre Lane, Ramswami, Kharadar and Mithadar.

During a visit to different parts of the city one could see that on the one hand a large number of manholes are still without covers, and on the other the covers of various manholes which had been lying broken for a long time have not been replaced.

KWSB Managing Director Ghulam Arif on Wednesday ordered all zonal chief engineers to undertake routine inspections of the localities falling under their jurisdiction to avoid any untoward incident in future owing to open manholes.

He also directed zonal chief engineers, superintending engineers and executive engineers to complete the task of placing covers on manholes in the next three days; a report in this regard must be furnished to him within three days, or else stern disciplinary action will be taken against those found guilty of negligence in their duties, it was learnt.

Aside from the uncovered manholes, no warning signs have been placed at the ongoing projects, nor have any other safety measures been taken around several gaping ditches and trenches which the KWSB had dug in different parts of the city either for the laying of pipelines or storm-water drains, particularly in the city’s four industrial zones.

Even at those project sites where the KWSB had completed the task, the dug-up trenches are often left unfilled by the utility’s contractors for a long time, posing a serious danger to the lives of pedestrians in particular and motorcyclists in general.

Moreover, a number of deep and wide ditches, which were dug a long time ago while laying a storm-water drain on Tipu Sultan Road, have been left unfilled. Both motorists and pedestrians apprehend that such ditches might prove to be death-traps.

People residing in different housing societies located on either side of Tipu Sultan Road claimed that a number of motorcyclists and motorists had already fallen victim to these ditches.