If you're not paying attention as you walk through the city, you can easily fall into an uncovered drain.
It's a major urban hazard and the city council is trying to do something about it.
But it's not easy - because hundreds of them are broken and it's not a one size fits all situation - the covers have varying dimensions.
Jomarie Lanza spoke with their works manager today and he told us more about what they will be doing these next few months.
There are gaping holes in the city sidewalks, and many of them have been closed off with caution tape to prevent pedestrians from falling in. And as of last year the city council has devised a project to properly cover these manholes, all 300 and counting.
Lennox Leslie, Works Manager, Belize City Council
"The slogan that I had for it is "no open holes, no excuses" so what we are doing is we are doing a mass project where we set out teams to map the city and locate and identify all the missing manhole covers and the damaged ones that we find."
"The total count is not specific but up to date the ones we have mapped out and cautioned is about 320 and counting. So we still have more missing, they get damaged daily and some are even stolen right? So the count now that we have cautioned off is the 320 I said."
A previous city hall administration had attempted to do the same but faced numerous challenges in manufacturing the correctly sized cover for each manhole. They are all different sizes, but the council's works manager has come up with a solution to this.
Lennox Leslie, Works Manager, Belize City Council
"What we are doing too is changing a bit when it comes to the design of the manhole covers. Naturally the size are a factor because traditionally we have done many different sizes and the most standard size would be 19 and 3 quarters by 27 inches. So lets say for average 20 by 30 and with that the spacing of the rebar's which is number 3 bars is spaced at about 8-10 inches. So minimizing the spacing, making it about 4-6 inches so it is more structurally sound and it should hold up a bit better. Our goal is for this year to complete all the manhole covers. We are 7 days into the new year and we have completed 32 manhole covers that have been produced already."
It takes 7 days to make 10 manhole covers, once the curing process is complete. Leslie is confident that they will be able to seal off all the manholes, but he stresses that they need the public to cooperate and not tamper with them.
Lennox Leslie, Works Manager, Belize City Council
"I do ask that the residents exercise a bit more civic pride like other countries within the region this is because we have noticed that the metal manhole covers they have been stolen and sold for scrap metals, the wooden ones have been removed and sometimes the concrete one they use it for driveways into their property. What we are doing is that we are adding a bit more, there is a ratio we use to mix the concrete, we are increasing a bit more when it comes to the cement so that we have a stronger compressive strength and with the rebars we are adding a bit more so it has more tensile strength. Naturally the concrete manhole covers we get, we try to get them to about 1400 psi minimum and that would be able to hold 32 persons standing on it. However I just want to make clear that manhole covers are for the sidewalks, so it is for pedestrians only, not for vehicles and it is a breaking of the regulations and the law for a vehicle to be parked on them. We have a lot of instances where that happens to call out these areas. I label them as high damage areas and that is Freetown and Water Lane specifically. Freetown when it comes to Li Chee restaurant, a lot of people park on that side, not only them but delivery trucks. What we have done if you pass there right now you will see caution tape and rebars up and it has deterred people from parking there."
