City officials have expressed shock at the destruction of expensive water-monitoring equipment in Grahamstown, only hours after it was installed. They have called on the community to help protect municipal equipment.
City officials have expressed shock at the destruction of expensive water-monitoring equipment in Grahamstown, only hours after it was installed. They have called on the community to help protect municipal equipment.
Vandals destroyed newly installed water equipment at the Botha's Hill and Mayfield reservoirs last weekend, taking efforts to stabilise the city's water supply a big step backwards.
Amatola Water's Chris Nair said the company had installed new equipment at both reservoirs on Friday 13 June, only to find it severely vandalised the next day.
"Nothing has been repaired yet," said Nair, area operations manager for Amatola. "We could see that the motive was not theft, just vandalism. The equipment is very expensive. We did send someone from IT, but when they arrived, they police told them not to touch anything," he said.
The equipment includes specialised telemetry equipment that allows remote monitoring of water levels in supply reservoirs.
Amatola Water has been contracted by Makana Municipality since November 2013 to manage its bulk water supplies for the next five years.
Nair said he was worried more damage will be inflicted if the vandals strike again. He said he had notified infrastructure portfolio chairperson councillor Nomhle Gaga about the incident.
Speaking yesterday to Grocott's Mail about the incident, Mayor Zamuxolo Peter said it was shocking that people vandalise water equipment meant to help the community.
"I received an SMS from Councillor Gaga advising me of the vandalism at Botha's Hill," he said. "It is shocking really that something like this happens in our reservoirs."
He said it was particularly galling at a time when Makana was in the midst of a financial crisis.
He said on Wednesday he and acting municipal manager Themba Mnguni had gone to see first-hand what had happened.
"We don't know who did it, but honestly speaking this is very much uncalled for. We have worked so hard to fix the water problem, we invested a lot of money to try and address the water challenges in our municipality, especially for areas like Joza, Vukani and Extension 7," said the mayor.
Gaga said she was disappointed.
"We have been going to the national [government]asking for funds to fix the water problem. No one will take us seriously when we ask for help if we keep on vandalising what is here to help us," said Gaga. She appealed to residents to report people vandalising municipal property.
"The community must work together with us and police to protect the property of the municipality, otherwise we will be left without water," Gaga said. "This infrastructure is theirs (the community's) and they are supposed to guard it."
She said the incident was taking the municipality backwards in their efforts to fix Makana's water problems.
