The municipality has asked the organisations to engage with police, security companies, community police forums, neighbourhood watch groups and civic groups to help stem vandalism and acts of sabotage to infrastructure.
Ratepayer organisations are working together with the eThekwini Municipality to monitor and safeguard the City’s vital infrastructure from vandalism.
The municipality has asked the organisations to engage with police, security companies, community police forums, neighbourhood watch groups and civic groups to help stem vandalism and acts of sabotage to infrastructure.
The eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association (ERRA) said it had met with members of the eThekwini Water and Sanitation Department (EWS) recently to discuss issues of concern.
“This meeting was the first step in forging a long-lasting relationship between EWS and ERRA to help improve service delivery for the residents of eThekwini.
“The meeting’s key points were to address and resolve not only outages across eThekwini, but the numerous security and vandalism challenges which cause delays in services being delivered by the EWS,” the association said in a statement.
ERRA said its executive committee would be engaging with police and civic groups to assist in reducing vandalism and acts of sabotage.
The Westville Ratepayers Association is collaborating with the municipality in response to incidents of vandalism at the Leah Drive pump station, where cables were severed on three occasions, resulting in significant disruptions to the water supply.
Municipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana told “The Mercury” a case of vandalism was reported to police after the pump station was vandalised and its components removed from the site.
She said the cables were cut at the pump station on three separate occasions in the space of just a month and other pump stations had also been targeted.
“Other pump stations in the City are experiencing the same problem, prompting the City to deploy 24-hour security, which comes at a cost to ratepayers,” said Sisilana.
Last year the newly repaired uMlazi 4 pump station was vandalised, resulting in the interruption of water supply to uMlazi Z, AA, and BB sections, while earlier this year the Athlone Park tower pump station in eManzimtoti was vandalised.
Sisilana said water supply had been restored in Westville and that the recent incident at the weekend had not disrupted the supply.
“The City is also collaborating with local armed response squads to regularly monitor the facility.”
The City said that providing security required an additional budget.
“We urge the public to practise active citizenry and safeguard service delivery infrastructure, especially water infrastructure, by ensuring that the infrastructure is not vandalised as this causes setbacks in service delivery.”
Asad Gaffar, chairperson of the Westville Ratepayers Association, said a joint decision was made for residents to step in to assist with the monitoring of the City’s infrastructure in a meeting with the City’s head of water and sanitation, Ednick Msweli, last week.
He said the Leah Drive reservoir, which has two pumps and supplies a major part of central Westville, is the only reservoir in the area that does not have security.
According to Gaffar, both the pumps have been vandalised and the City had to strip one pump to make the other work.
“The last major outage happened about two weeks ago and the residents went without water for seven to nine days. That was resolved and the cables were stolen again at the weekend, the difference now being that the City picked up the issue early,” he said.
With regard to residents collaborating with the City to monitor vital infrastructure, he said residents and the City must play their part.
He said residents had already stepped in to put money together for a camera to monitor a substation after fuses were stolen.
“Those sorts of interventions are taking place. People have realised that we have to also take a little bit of responsibility to protect the infrastructure.”
“(The City) cannot pass on this responsibility to the residents because there is a security budget that is allocated,” said Gaffar.
He said most of the security companies in the community had stepped up and agreed to patrol those sites, adding that dRK Tactical Security had played a major role in this regard.
Mahmood Simjee, director and head of executive protection and risk solutions at dRK, said the company had a large footprint in the Westville area and a dedicated area manager.
He said dRK reaction officers had included the pump stations and substations on their daily patrol routes.
Charnel Hattingh, group head of communications and marketing at the Fidelity Services Group, said everyone had a duty to protect public assets and infrastructure.
“If you see something suspicious in your community, raise the alarm immediately and call the police or law enforcement, so that we can all help protect the assets and infrastructure on which we all rely every day,” Hattingh said.
The Mercury