PORT OF SPAIN Mayor Joel Martinez has sent out a plea to the public to report anyone involved in a recent spate of thefts of metal drain covers in the capital city which have exposed drivers and pedestrians to the hazard of open drains and manholes.
He shared his concerns after being contacted on Friday by Newsday which had noticed manhole covers missing along Independence Square.
Martinez said he noticed some missing metal grills which were designed to provide cover over drain holes while allowing flood waters to run into drains underneath.
He said suspected this was due to "organised theft" over the past 4-5 days.
"At this time I am sending a request for the superintendent of police to investigate and at the same time have some caution tape put around the various areas where it is happening. There are a number of spots this has happened to and it is very recent.
"I will ask the Port of Spain City Corporation's CEO and superintendent of police to reach out to the scrap iron dealers to find out if there have been any sort of individuals bringing that material in to have it recycled or taken up and paid for."
Newsday asked if the thefts of metal covers/grills would push the corporation to use concrete covers.
He replied, "We use an open grill where water can go into the main drain, so if you put concrete then it will impede it.
"Further, the concrete tends to mash up a lot faster than the metal. Also the metal is a lot stronger, even as you will remember that a lot of these are on the road and they are just over the drain. The other round metal covers have WASA valves underneath and protect the valves and allow access to the underground drainage."
[caption id="attachment_893702" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A makeshift barrier placed over an open manhole along Upper Henry Street, Port of Spain. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]
Asked if the fines for such thefts should be increased so as to deter thieves, Martinez vowed to look into this question.
"We do have cameras in the city and I'd want the police to look into the areas where we have cameras to determine if they are able to see any maliciousness taking place regarding the removal of the grill gates and the metal covers."
Martinez said, "I'd like to appeal to the individuals who maliciously remove the city infrastructure that covers the underground drains which assist us in cleaning these drain.
"When you remove those covers what you are doing is actually creating a hole in the middle of the road of which if a vehicle goes down in it, can pose serious damage to that vehicle and can maybe cause someone to have swing away from it which could cause serious injury of death."
He said replacing the covers was costly at a time of limited funds.
"So citizens of Port of Spain, please if you see anyone removing the infrastructure from the city, it is something we want to discourage. Please report it. Take a picture and send it to the mayor and let us know something,
