Theft and vandalism of Buffalo City Metro’s water and sanitation infrastructure in the past three years has cost ratepayers more than R77m to fix.
The disruptive acts of sabotage on the city’s water and sanitation networks have escalated dramatically between 2021 and 2024.
The huge repair bill is over and above the R300m a year which the metro says it loses annually due to theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure.
In July 2022, the cost of fixing vandalised water and sanitation infrastructure was recorded at R13.2m.
The repair bill rocketed to almost R78m this year as the wholesale plunder resulted in repeated disruption to water and sanitation services across the city.
This is according to a report tabled in the council recently by BCM’s acting head of infrastructure services, Luyanda Mbula, who revealed that the metro was drowning in expenses as a result of sabotage of the ageing network.
Mbula said the network was so old the city also needed more than R5bn to replace dilapidated water supply infrastructure and just over R4bn for sanitation infrastructure.
According to the metro’s asset management plan, BCM’s water supply and sanitation network asset portfolio comprises:
• 210 water facilities, including boreholes, water treatment works, pump stations and reservoirs;
• 117 sanitation facilities, consisting of sewer pump stations, waste water treatment works and screening stations;
• 3,456km of water pipes and bulk water mains; and
• 2,530km of sanitation pipes for sewerage connections, reticulation and outfall sewers.
Mbula told the council vandalism of municipal infrastructure was a nationwide challenge “which undermines the government’s efforts to supply clean drinking water in a sustainable manner”, and that such acts “interrupt the agenda of delivering environmentally safe sanitation services to affected communities”.
He said: “Whenever an event of infrastructure vandalism occurs, the government must seek ways to urgently ensure continued service delivery as a matter of emergency, while simultaneously making efforts to restore the vandalised assets.”
This “defeats the asset management and renewal programmes as budgets and critical resources must be directed to attend to these unplanned events, thus creating unnecessary backlogs to sustainable water services delivery”.
Mbula said destruction of water infrastructure “generally results in reduced access to a suitable quantity and quality of water to users broadly, and this in turn affects the sanitation services, with associated impacts on public health and personal dignity”.
When the city started to record vandalism incidents targeting infrastructure in July 2022, the estimated cost of restoration was R2.9m for water infrastructure and R10.3m for wastewater infrastructure, “a clear indication that sanitation services were the primary target”.
“This combined figure grew exponentially, and the accumulated value is now estimated at R77m as at the end of February 2024.”
Between July 2021 and January this year, there were 82 acts of vandalism of the metro’s sanitation infrastructure, which cost more than R68.7m to fix, while between March 2021 and November 2023, there were 25 incidents of vandalism of its water infrastructure, costing the city about R9.2m to repair.
Acts of vandalism of infrastructure included the theft of valuable metal pipes, electronic equipment, fittings and manhole covers.
Mbula told the council that among the challenges the metro faced in dealing with the vandalism was a lack of competence in security risk and threat analysis in respect of infrastructure.
Fruitless expenditure owing to habitual repairs that had to be carried out, ineffective law enforcement, rejection of insurance claims due to poor security and lack of effective community policing forums at ward level were also a problem.
Metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said this week that vandalism was crippling service delivery.
He pointed the finger at the proliferation of scrapyards which, he said, failed to verify the ownership of items they purchased.
“Vandalism has an impact on service delivery, which in turn affects our people,” Ngwenya said.
“We have always condemned the issue of scrapyard dealers who buy undocumented stolen goods as being one of the main sources behind the growth of this crime.
“We are taking precautions to safeguard our infrastructure and this has paid dividends, particularly in electricity, where we have partnered with private security companies to guard installations and arrest culprits.
“Technology is also a solution to some of these crimes.”
On Thursday, the DA’s chief whip in the metro, Anathi Majeke, lamented the city’s failure to provide adequate security to protect crucial infrastructure.
“The DA is deeply concerned about the repeated vandalism of our city’s water and sanitation infrastructure.
“We’ve repeatedly called for increased security measures to protect these vital assets, but there appears to be a lack of urgency from both the executive and the administration.
“This reactive approach to infrastructure security is simply unacceptable.
“We’ve had a security risk analysis on the council agenda for six years with no concrete action.
“It’s baffling that securing municipal buildings takes priority over the infrastructure that directly enables the city to fulfil its basic obligations to residents.”
Eastern Cape Black Business Forum president Luthando Bara said vandalism and destruction of public infrastructure in the city “impose a significant burden on businesses, directly affecting production”.
“The city should consider transitioning from steel- and metal-based infrastructure to cement and plastic for its water systems.
“We also call on the city to improve law enforcement and declare destruction of public infrastructure as treasonous.”
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