BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
SANITATION and water department in North West will beef up its security system after experiencing vandalism to its infrastructure recently. The department spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau said fifteen people stole cables from the transformer and switchgear room at Orkney Waste Water Treatment Plant last week.
He said thieves allegedly tied-up the security guards before misdemeanor. Ratau said this was not for the first similar incident took place.
“Another incident took place in Delareyville where cables were stolen at a pump station. The station supplies water to town and that caused inconvenience. The thieves also damaged some of the switchgear when stealing the cables.
“As department, we are very concern because these crimes are increasing. Our infrastructure has been vandalised and the lives of the staff working at these plants are also at risk. As part of the emergency intervention, the department will refurbish and repair the dysfunctional infrastructure,” Ratau said.
He said they will ensure that better security measures are put in place. Ratau said they also urged all South Africans to work together to preserve the infrastructure.
“We urge our community members to report any crimes they may witness to the departmental hotline on 0800 200 200. We need to realise that the destruction of infrastructure is not only a criminal activity.
“We will be working hand-in-hand with the police to curb this pandemic. Vandalism upsets service delivery. It is a democratic right for people to have service delivery, so we need to work together in preserving infrastructure,” he said.
Meanwhile water and sanitation department, chief director of revenue, Norman Mudau urged unregistered water users to come forward and register. He said activities such as water use for allocation, monitoring and assessing water resource availability and use, planning and implementation of catchment management strategies, institutional development and public participation, water conservation and demand management, management of water quality, water resource protection, management of floods and droughts and water abstraction must be billed for.
“The department does not make profit from billing water users. We only benefit through generation of water use charges from economic water users which ensure the construction, operation, maintenance and completion of water infrastructure and the management of water resources. All unregistered water users were handed over to the department’s debt collection agency from April.
“We will also pursue legal actions against them. We urge all economic water users to contact the department’s toll free number which is 0800 200 200 for any enquiries related to applying and registering on the departmental database. The database provides an accurate picture of water use throughout the country,” Mudau said.
-TDN
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