* Incidents of destruction of water infrastructure increases * WUC enlist BDF, DIS and Police to assist
The government's efforts to provide safe drinking water in accordance with the National Water Plan are encountering a crisis due to suspected thieves targeting various points of the infrastructure.
The method employed to vandalise the infrastructure indicates the involvement of individuals with expertise in the system. Extensive vandalism across numerous regions is leading to an ongoing decrease in daily water production.
In the worst-case scenario, this vandalism could decrease production levels from 40 million litres to 10 million litres per day. Consequently, the primary water provider, Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), has incurred expenses exceeding P1 million to restore services.
Chief Executive Officer of WUC, Gaselemogwe Senai described a scenario where citizens are growing increasingly frustrated as his responsibility to provide safe drinking water is being undermined by the barbaric actions of certain individuals.
Illustrating this, he mentioned a recent incident where the villages of Kanye and Moshupa experienced a loss of supply due to the theft of large cables at the Gamononyane pump station.
Such occurrences, he said, lead them to believe that knowledgeable individuals are deliberately targeting the water infrastructure.
“The vandalism looks sophisticated and organised, clearly showing that we are not dealing with petty thieves,” said Senai in an interview.
Senai said this past year, they saw water chambers being vandalised in Maitengwe, Palapye-Serowe, Ramotswa, Molepolole, Mmamashia-Oodi, and along the North South Carrier (NSC).
They are also seeing some people breaking the pipelines for the purpose of watering livestock along the NSC pipeline. He said in such instances, water can be wasting for some time until there is a major water supply interruption in a certain location, or someone reports to the Corporation.
Senai said in the last five weeks, Masama wellfields suffered a lot of vandalism with the most recent incident being 26 of high yielding boreholes vandalised leading to a decline in production.
“At worst, this vandalism can drop production level from 40 million litres to 10 million litres a day,” he said, adding that cables were also stolen, fortunately they changed from the use of copper to aluminium as mitigation”.
Copper seemed to be the major target by thieves. He said restoring a vandalised borehole ranges from P40 000 to P115 000, depending on what has been damaged. When these boreholes are off due to vandalism, they are compelled to tighten supply regime to ensure that water reaches everyone.
WUC has experienced vandalism of 12 air release valves and isolation valves along Nthane-Mokubilo pipeline. Senai said this resulted in unavailability of air release valves which incapacitates the water transfer scheme to timely transmit water from Nthane to Mokubilo.
“Unavailability of isolation valves poses a challenge during maintenance because we need to interrupt the flow of water for ease of maintenance”.
He said during this incident, WUC engaged the law enforcement department, village leadership for all the villages that benefit from the water transfer scheme being Nthane, Mosu, Makgaba and Mokubilo.
“We have procured other valves to replace the vandalised ones, this cost us P42 000”. They also experienced vandalism of valve chambers and its associated appurtenances by elephants along Phuduhudu pipeline last week. This cost the Corporation P160 000. This incident raised customer complaints because it led to shortage of water in the villages of Motopi, Moremaoto, Chanoga and Makalamabedi.
“We invest a lot of time, money, and other resources in trying to attend to these defects and ultimately we suffer loss of confidence by our customers.”
In terms of mitigation, WUC has installed elephant spikes around the valve chambers. “Our Office also engaged the wildlife department on the matter, and they promised that they will find ways of relocating these elephants to the areas”.
Senai said collectively, they have expended over P1 million on vandalism incidents, infrastructure maintenance, and repairs. Vandalism significantly disrupts the daily water supply to residents, causing areas to go without water for hours or even days.
For instance, in Masama, perpetrators may target high-yielding boreholes, forcing them to be taken offline. Larger villages like Kanye take several days to recover once their supply is disrupted.
Senai disclosed that they have apprehended several individuals, including both Botswana citizens and foreigners. Despite granting bail to one offender, they repeated the offence and were apprehended again.
Measures have been implemented to safeguard their property, including enhanced security with additional cameras and sensors. Collaboration with law enforcement agencies such as the Botswana Defence Force, Botswana Police, and DIS has been initiated to track down these criminals.
He lamented that some of the perpetrators are children from households in affected areas and there is a possibility that stolen goods, such as cables, are hidden in their houses before ending up in scrap yards.
Senai urged Batswana to actively participate in combating water infrastructure vandalism, emphasising that these resources belong to everyone.
The government has invested considerable funds in constructing water sources such as dams and pipelines to fulfil the National Water Plan.
Consequently, every loss affects the entire community, underscoring the importance of collective efforts to protect this vital resource by safeguarding the infrastructure.
The method employed to vandalise the infrastructure indicates the involvement of individuals with expertise in the system. Extensive vandalism across numerous regions is leading to an ongoing decrease in daily water production.
In the worst-case scenario, this vandalism could decrease production levels from 40 million litres to 10 million litres per day. Consequently, the primary water provider, Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), has incurred expenses exceeding P1 million to restore services.
Chief Executive Officer of WUC, Gaselemogwe Senai described a scenario where citizens are growing increasingly frustrated as his responsibility to provide safe drinking water is being undermined by the barbaric actions of certain individuals.
Illustrating this, he mentioned a recent incident where the villages of Kanye and Moshupa experienced a loss of supply due to the theft of large cables at the Gamononyane pump station.
Such occurrences, he said, lead them to believe that knowledgeable individuals are deliberately targeting the water infrastructure.
“The vandalism looks sophisticated and organised, clearly showing that we are not dealing with petty thieves,” said Senai in an interview.
Senai said this past year, they saw water chambers being vandalised in Maitengwe, Palapye-Serowe, Ramotswa, Molepolole, Mmamashia-Oodi, and along the North South Carrier (NSC).
They are also seeing some people breaking the pipelines for the purpose of watering livestock along the NSC pipeline. He said in such instances, water can be wasting for some time until there is a major water supply interruption in a certain location, or someone reports to the Corporation.
Senai said in the last five weeks, Masama wellfields suffered a lot of vandalism with the most recent incident being 26 of high yielding boreholes vandalised leading to a decline in production.
“At worst, this vandalism can drop production level from 40 million litres to 10 million litres a day,” he said, adding that cables were also stolen, fortunately they changed from the use of copper to aluminium as mitigation”.
Copper seemed to be the major target by thieves. He said restoring a vandalised borehole ranges from P40 000 to P115 000, depending on what has been damaged. When these boreholes are off due to vandalism, they are compelled to tighten supply regime to ensure that water reaches everyone.
WUC has experienced vandalism of 12 air release valves and isolation valves along Nthane-Mokubilo pipeline. Senai said this resulted in unavailability of air release valves which incapacitates the water transfer scheme to timely transmit water from Nthane to Mokubilo.
“Unavailability of isolation valves poses a challenge during maintenance because we need to interrupt the flow of water for ease of maintenance”.
He said during this incident, WUC engaged the law enforcement department, village leadership for all the villages that benefit from the water transfer scheme being Nthane, Mosu, Makgaba and Mokubilo.
“We have procured other valves to replace the vandalised ones, this cost us P42 000”. They also experienced vandalism of valve chambers and its associated appurtenances by elephants along Phuduhudu pipeline last week. This cost the Corporation P160 000. This incident raised customer complaints because it led to shortage of water in the villages of Motopi, Moremaoto, Chanoga and Makalamabedi.
“We invest a lot of time, money, and other resources in trying to attend to these defects and ultimately we suffer loss of confidence by our customers.”
In terms of mitigation, WUC has installed elephant spikes around the valve chambers. “Our Office also engaged the wildlife department on the matter, and they promised that they will find ways of relocating these elephants to the areas”.
Senai said collectively, they have expended over P1 million on vandalism incidents, infrastructure maintenance, and repairs. Vandalism significantly disrupts the daily water supply to residents, causing areas to go without water for hours or even days.
For instance, in Masama, perpetrators may target high-yielding boreholes, forcing them to be taken offline. Larger villages like Kanye take several days to recover once their supply is disrupted.
Senai disclosed that they have apprehended several individuals, including both Botswana citizens and foreigners. Despite granting bail to one offender, they repeated the offence and were apprehended again.
Measures have been implemented to safeguard their property, including enhanced security with additional cameras and sensors. Collaboration with law enforcement agencies such as the Botswana Defence Force, Botswana Police, and DIS has been initiated to track down these criminals.
He lamented that some of the perpetrators are children from households in affected areas and there is a possibility that stolen goods, such as cables, are hidden in their houses before ending up in scrap yards.
Senai urged Batswana to actively participate in combating water infrastructure vandalism, emphasising that these resources belong to everyone.
The government has invested considerable funds in constructing water sources such as dams and pipelines to fulfil the National Water Plan.
Consequently, every loss affects the entire community, underscoring the importance of collective efforts to protect this vital resource by safeguarding the infrastructure.
