Makana Municipality has not yet reported to the police a recent major break in a water pipe.
Makana Municipality has not yet reported to the police a recent major break in a water pipe.
Officials said they suspected sabotage when the pipe broke in September, leaving Joza without water for days.
"The pipe that was broken between James Kleynhans water treatments works and Botha's Hill reservoir was deliberate sabotage," Chris Nair, Area Operations Manager at Amatola Water, said. He said he knows this because "there was no pipe or cable stolen".
Thieves sometimes strip pipes and cables for scrap metal which they then sell. Nair said the damage to the 450mm pipe was costly to the municipality.
He said 6 million litres of water had been lost because of the broken pipe and that Makana officials were putting on urgent intervention programmes.
These include public awareness campaigns so residents report deliberate sabotage and theft. A series of outages from different causes, ranging from vandalism to power outages at the pump stations, have repeatedly left Grahamstown residents without water for long periods.
Earlier this month, residents of Phumlani and Joza burnt tyres and other materials and barricaded a four-way stop in Ncame Street to protest three days without water.
The protest on 2 October began after a water pipe broke between the James Kleynhans water treatments works and Botha's Hill reservoir which supplies water to these and other areas on the eastern side of Grahamstown. Officials promised to repair the pipe by 1 October, but technicians could not finish the work due to the unavailability of essential components. Frustrated residents took to the streets.
Around 5pm that day, one resident reported that the water had returned, but this was just for a while, it turned out. When Grocott's Mail enquired about the cause of the burst pipe, Makana officials said they suspected sabotage. Makana spokesperson Yoliswa Ramokolo told Grocott's Mail that the municipality has not yet reported the incident.
She said officials were currently doing their own private investigation. During a Makana and Amatola joint public information session and water infrastructure tour in mid-September, security was highlighted. Officials said lack of security was among the biggest threats to maintaining a reliable water supply.
The municipal water and sanitation manager Ntombi Tshicilela said equipment stolen from the water treatment works costs millions to replace.
She said stolen equipment was being sold to scrapyards. During the September tour, Nair said there would be constant supervision and control of the water treatment plants.
