Missing manhole cover mission

Missing manhole covers pose a serious risk to walkers, runners and pedestrians - and it is one of the reasons I don't always run on pavements/sidewalks, especially at night. The metal manhole covers are regularly stolen, to be sold to scrap metal places. It is really difficult for the municipality to keeps tabs on the many, many manholes because covers are there one day and gone the next.

Earlier this year a man fell into a sewerage-filled manhole in a suburb only a few kilometres from me. Three weeks after the incident he was still fighting the bacterial infection that resulted from infected wounds - never mind the horror of falling into sewerage!  I've heard of people stepping into holes and fracturing a leg or severely bruising and wounding flesh.

I have a really superb DA councillor in my area, Michele Clark. The cover of a deep hole was missing for a week, maybe more, on the pavement near home. Michele's team replaced the cover within 24 hours of receiving our report. I've now started on a 'manhole mission' to report missing covers and broken drain covers when I see them during runs.

I take a Google Map and put a red x on the location of the missing manhole. Michele dispatches her team from the Ekurhuleni Municipality to replace the cover.

Cement covers are popular replacements because there's no value in stealing them. In my email I try to specify whether the cover is round or rectangular and where it is (on the road or pavement). There are different types of drains and holes so I hope that this gives them a bit of an idea of what kind of cover they need to take to fix it.

Find your municipal representative in your area and be proactive in your approach to this problem instead of waiting for them to come across it by chance. It will get fixed a lot faster if you notify them.