Missing manhole, drain covers cost council over RM300,000 in losses

Rampant: (From left) Ngieng, Tiong and Hii inspecting a manhole which had its cover stolen, in front of a secondary school in Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, SIbu.

SIBU: The Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) suffered losses amounting to RM345,827.50 due to thefts of metal manhole and drain covers over the last 21 months.

SMC secretary Hii Chang Kee said last year, a total of 1,133 pieces of manhole and drain covers were stolen while in the first nine months of this year, the number was 1,298. This translated to 115 covers missing every month, or four pieces per day.