Shafaq News- Baghdad

Stolen manhole covers are turning Baghdad's streets into hidden death traps, with open drainage shafts swallowing pedestrians in broad daylight across residential neighborhoods in the Iraqi capital.

Thieves strip iron covers from sewage access points to sell to recycling facilities and smelting plants operating outside Baghdad, where enforcement is thin, and scrap metal fetches quick cash. Left uncovered, the shafts are invisible to anyone walking at night or distracted, particularly children.

Ali Mohammed, 18, described losing his footing as he walked his younger brother to a nearby shop in the Jihad district of western Baghdad. "I didn't feel anything until my foot slipped into the drain that had no cover," Mohammed told Shafaq News. He held onto his brother as he fell, keeping the child from dropping in entirely. "Fortunately, I caught my brother tightly to stop him from falling all the way in; I only got a few small scratches." He said the same shaft had been fitted with a replacement iron cap multiple times and stolen every time.

A neighbor, Umm Nour, 32, told Shafaq News that the thefts had effectively confined her children indoors. "I don't let my children go out to play on their own because I'm afraid they'll fall into the sewer shaft near our house," she said. Her own attempts to seal the opening, including a concrete pour over an iron cover, failed within a day. The cover was gone by morning.

Baghdad Municipality acknowledged a sharp recent rise in thefts. Spokesman Udai al-Jandeel confirmed to Shafaq News that the authority is coordinating with the Interior Ministry and security forces to stake out active theft zones and arrest those responsible, and that replacement covers are being installed as thefts are reported. He added that several suspects have already been detained and charged, and the thefts are sustained by a supply chain that depends on complicity: smelting plants outside the city continue purchasing the stolen public property.

"The smelting plants located outside Baghdad deal with thieves in buying manhole covers, which are public property that must be preserved."