Lidless manholes: A man-made danger
"A week ago, I rescued a four-year-old boy who fell into the manhole. Earlier, a woman was rescued by fire service officials. I've seen a total of five people fall into the manholes in the last month alone."
Salam Uddin was on his way to National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital (NIO&H) in the capital's Agargaon last week, with his six-year-old son who has vision problems.
However, the journey did not go as smoothly as expected. The lower half of the child's body fell into a 15-foot deep, lidless manhole. The incident injured his legs.
Instead of getting his eyes checked, he had to be rushed to a nearby private clinic to get his legs treated.
"I consider myself lucky as I was able to hold on to his hand tightly before he could fall deep into the manhole. I can't imagine what would have happened otherwise," said Salam, a resident of Mirpur-1.
"People with eye problems come to the hospital. How can they just leave a manhole in front of the establishment open like this?" he asked.
This is far from an isolated case. On Syed Mahbub Morshed road, the stretch from Shishu Mela footbridge to NIO&H, 19 out of 24 manholes have remained totally uncovered for over a month.
The remaining six have been covered with bamboo fences and tree branches.
Things turn worse for the pedestrians at night as the road -- which now allows only one-way movement because of ongoing repair work of DNCC -- does not have enough street lights.
DNCC started its works on the road around five months, and in the process, established new drainage there. But after authorities finished construction, the newly created manholes were left uncovered on one of the two lanes.
During several visits to the area last week, this correspondent found at least 80 such manholes on the one-kilometre road from Shishu Mela to the Archives and Library Department building.
Locals alleged that the manholes have remained uncovered for around a month. Around three to four incidents of pedestrians stumbling over the manholes, or even parts of their body slipping into them, are witnessed every week.
However, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) authorities are yet to take any steps in this regard.
Sadek Hossain, a security guard of TB hospital, said more than 1,000 patients come to the hospital every day.
"A week ago, I rescued a four-year-old boy who fell into the manhole. Earlier, a woman was rescued by fire service officials," he said.
"I've seen a total of five people slipping into the manholes in the last month alone," he added.
Jalal Uddin, an eye patient at NIO&H, told this correspondent that after getting down from the bus in front of Shishu Mela, he had to walk very carefully to get to the eye hospital because of the manholes.
"I have problems in both my eyes. So I had to walk very slowly to reach the hospital. It took around 10 minutes to move through a walkway that should've taken two minutes," he said.
Sohel Hossain, a roadside shopkeeper, said as there are two hospitals there, hundreds of patients visit the spot from all over the region.
"Manholes covered with bamboo fences are even more dangerous than lidless ones," he added.
Ashirul Islam, a security guard at NIO&H, said over 2,500 eye patients from all around the country come to the hospital for treatment.
"Most people coming here have vision problems. They are always concerned about being the next victims of accidents caused by these manholes," he said.
It was known that Jony Enterprise, a private contractor, has been given the work of covering the manholes. Despite two visits to the site office on the road last week, this correspondent did not find any official to speak on behalf of the company.
Construction worker Kashem Uddin, however, said it has just been a month since they started installing the manhole covers.
Contacted, Forkan Hossain, councillor of ward-28 under DNCC, said, "The road has very important public structures including schools, colleges, hospitals and offices. We have already instructed the contractor to complete the work as soon as possible."