A sales sign is used to warn of the danger of an open sewer in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The city is spending 100,000 yuan ($16,011) on insurance to compensate people who are injured in encounters with faulty or missing sewer covers. Photo: CFP

Some 30,000 of the 430,000 sewer covers in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, will be covered by accident insurance next year, in an effort to compensate people who are injured, killed or suffer property losses when they encounter missing or damaged covers, an official from the city's urban management bureau told the Global Times Tuesday.

Local authorities plan to add 10,000 sewer covers to its insurance that already covers 20,000 of them at an annual premium of 100,000 yuan ($16,011) in 2010.
The insurance provides up to 300,000 yuan for loss of life or severe injuries and 150,000 yuan for property loss caused by faulty or missing covers.

More than 20 injury and property damage claims have been paid since 2010, with compensation ranging from several hundred yuan to several thousand yuan.

Ding Yi, head of the bureau's publicity department, told the Global Times Tuesday that the effort to insure the remaining sewer covers is being carried out, adding that the city's bureau is also encouraging district branches, which supervise some 100,000 personholes, to also take out insurance.

Residents in Nanjing report a huge number of complaints about sewer covers, which are separately managed by different companies and authorities.

During the first 10 months of this year, 223 accidents caused by malfunction of the steel covers had been reported to the authorities.

During the same period, 790 covers were reported stolen, 559 damaged, 443 removed and 151 collapsed. In 2011, 1,459 were stolen, 916 damaged, 559 removed and 244 collapsed.

The bureau's name is being carved into the covers, as a means of letting residents know who is responsible for them, Ding added.

Missing and damaged covers often take residents in Chinese cities by surprise by swallowing their vehicle's wheel or causing nasty falls into dank sewers.

Gu Jun, a sociologist from Shanghai University, told the Global Times that buying insurance won't fundamentally solve the problem.

"Authorities might find a different material as a substitute for the current cover, which are made of steel and are always targeted by thieves. Enforcement measures should also be used when installing the covers," he said, adding that frequent patrolling could also help solve the problem.