DOHA: Central Municipal Council members and several citizens have urged officials to take immediate steps to cover manholes in public places. This demand has been raised following an incident of a child falling into a manhole in Al Saad area last week.
Hamza Mohamed Nawayisa, a three-year-old Jordanian child, while playing with his brother outside a hotel in Al Saad area, fell into an eight metres deep manhole and is now being treated at the Intensive Care Unit of the Hamad General Hospital, reported an Arabic daily yesterday.
The family was dining at the hotel when the incident occurred.
Mohamed Nawayisa, father of the child said, “I saw the child falling, a hotel staff helped me to get him out of the hole. It took 20 minutes for us. Ambulance arrived within five minutes, his heart beat was low when we reached the hospital, it took 20 minutes for him to breathe normal. What happened to my child shouldn’t happen to another, there should be proper action taken to cover such holes.” Many nationals and CMC members have asked the concern authorities to take action against people who are responsible for such negligence at construction sites and public places.
Mubarak Frish, a CMC member said: “We recommend authorities to take immediate action to make it compulsory for construction sites to have safety and other public places to be monitored about their safety standards. Anyone neglecting it should be given strict punishment, with a heavy fine.”
Hassan Abbas, another CMC member too is in the opinion that accidents could be avoided by implementing strict rules.
“Such accidents have happened many times, before two months, a 12 years old child fell in an open hole. Government should intervene and stop this kind of negligence. Construction sites should be covered must put warning signals and construction companies should be informed that any negligence would be a punishable offence,” said Abbas.
Some citizens said regular monitoring and immediate actions should be taken close open holes.
Jaffer Al Hyad a Qatari citizen said: “There must be prior actions, always we talk about actions only after an issue. One of my relative’s child died because she touched an uncovered electric wire and no one is punished.”
Mohamed Abdul Malik another citizen said, “Main reason behind such problems is lack of strict punishments and lack of regular inspections. During construction and event in buildings as hotels, commercial centres, schools, banks need to be monitored, how safe they are.”
The Peninsula
