Severely punish theft of manhole covers Liu ShinanChina Daily Updated: 2005-12-21 06:31
A few days ago, a netizen posted a message on an Internet BBS complaining
about his frustrating experience of seeking help after he got a flat tyre after
driving over an uncovered manhole on a road in Xi'an.
The Shanghai motorist was driving into the northwestern city at midnight on
October 1 when his car hit an uncovered manhole in the middle of the road. To
get help with his flat tyre as well as to remind the competent authorities of
the hidden danger, the man called the police, the municipal government office,
the municipal public utility department and the tap-water plant. He made 22
calls within three hours while waiting in chilly drizzle. The public utility
department claimed they had sent people over to set a warning sign by the
manhole. The water plant sent a worker to the scene, who inspected the manhole
briefly and then told the Shanghai man "the manhole belongs to the
telecommunications company" and left.
Nobody offered help to the poor motorist. A passing taxi driver told the
Shanghai man to swallow it because "missing a manhole cover is too common a
thing in Xi'an."
He was right. Missing manhole covers is not only common in the capital of
Northwest China's Shaanxi Province but in all cities across the country as well.
Thieves took the cast iron covers and sold them to waste recovery stations.
The crime takes place in all Chinese cities. Last year, 24,000 manhole covers
were stolen in Beijing. Shanghai reports the loss of 12 manhole covers on
average each day.
Missing manhole covers are particularly dangerous. Every year there are
reports of children's death and motor vehicle accidents because of the road
traps.
The theft of public facilities has been a chronic headache for many years but
there seems to be no effective solution to the problem. Most of the thieves are
vagrants from rural areas, who rely on it for a means of living. It happens so
often that as a manhole cover is replaced, it is stolen the next day.
Because of the small value of the iron cover, punishment for the theft is
usually light, and not enough to deter offenders.
An easy solution everybody can think of is forbidding waste recovery stations
from purchasing manhole covers. The idea is not new. Such prohibitive
regulations were promulgated even as early as more than 20 years ago. All waste
recovery stations know clearly what they are not allowed to buy but they still
buy them.
And waste recovery, as a "special industry," has been under surveillance by
the police. Why are the collectors so bold as to defy State laws?
A major reason is the greatly expanded number of waste recovery stations.
Waste recovery has become a lucrative business in recent years as waste
materials dumped by a better-off urban population contain more and more valuable
objects. That has given rise to many new waste recovery stations, which are not
registered. The government abandoned the practice of registering newly set-up
stations during the reform of urban administration. That makes it difficult for
the police to monitor the industry.
However, it should not become an excuse for lax monitoring.
Scrap iron ends up in iron plants. The number of iron plants is much less
than that of waste recovery units. Therefore it is not difficult for the police
or other competent authorities to stop dealers in manhole covers, which are
easily recognizable even in broken pieces, at iron plants. The key to the
problem still lies in the attitude of the executors of the law.
Another important thing necessary is a change in the judgement of the nature
of manhole cover theft. Since missing manhole covers usually lead to loss of
human lives, theft and dealing in the object should be regarded as a serious
offence, for example, "crime of endangering public safety," and severely
punished. The laws and regulations concerned should be revised.
Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 12/21/2005 page4)
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