China seeks to put a lid on manhole theft

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's capital is testing a new kind of manhole cover to put a lid on rampant theft, Xinhua news agency says.


Missing manhole covers are a hazardous fact of life on the sidewalks and roads of Beijing where they are stolen to be sold as scrap for a couple of dollars each.


"The new manhole covers will be made of non-metal materials with no recycling value," Wang Xin, spokesman for the city's utilities management department, was quoted as saying on Sunday.


Beijing has more than 600,000 manhole covers across the city owned by 18 companies. "Approximately 240,000 manhole and street- drain covers were stolen in Beijing in 2004," Xinhua said.

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In this modern politically correct world,it comes as a shock that these are not termed "personhole" covers.

Some kids took the manhole (or person-hole for missile, I guess) cover from in front of my mother-in-law's house. They dumped it on the hood of my brother-in-law's car. Messed up the car pretty bad.

I got dirty looks for making jokes about it.

I think "man" hole cover is more appropriate then Person Hole cover.

How about Sewer Maintenance Personell Access Portal Cover?