For the better part of the festive season a significant part of Karoi Town had no water. Instead of enjoying the festivities associated with the period, residents spent lots of time looking for water. This meant the town, being a transit town to Zambia, ran a huge risk of experiencing a cholera outbreak.
The reason behind this was because an armoured cable at Karoi Dam, where Zinwa abstracts some of the raw water for the town got damaged. Zinwa supplies the town using Karoi and Blockely Dams.
When the armoured cable got damaged, Zinwa swiftly replaced it, cognisant of the critical role that water and sanitation play, especially during the festive season which is characterised by high volumes of human traffic.
However, a day after the cable got replaced, the town was plunged into yet another crisis after the replacement got stolen. This highlights the costs and dangers brought about by vandalism of water infrastructure.
Vandalism refers to the wilful or malicious damage or destruction of public infrastructure which, in the end, disrupts normal functioning of facilities and service delivery. Vandalism takes various forms that include graffiti, theft of cables and other components. These are some of the challenges that Zinwa and other water utilities confront everyday as they strive to deliver seamless service.
The vandalism usually entails people destroying water infrastructure such as pipes to illegally access water, theft of other components such as cables, electric motors and valves.
While vandals may derive whatever satisfaction from their actions, it is the cost of their actions that worry everyone. Vandalism of water infrastructure disrupts service, depriving the general public of the critical and strategic resource called water.
The multiplier effect of this disruption is the exposure of thousands of people to diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Vandalism disrupts people’s normal lives as they spend too much time looking for alternative sources of water while industries lose millions of dollars worth of productive time as some of them cannot function without water.
This is bad for the economy. In the domestic arena, women and girls bear most of the brunt as they are usually forced to wake up early and walk long distances in search of water. Vandalism puts a huge strain on water utilities such as Zinwa and municipalities who already have highly limited resources.
For example, instead of Zinwa expending its resources on connecting new clients to the water network, its resources end up being channelled towards the repair and replacement of vandalised infrastructure.
In addition, vandalism deprives water utilities of the much needed revenue through non-revenue water as well. Service disruptions, occasioned by vandalism also jeopardise the relations and goodwill between water utilities and their clients. From the foregoing, it is therefore imperative that communities work closely with water utilities for purposes of minimising and ultimately eradicating vandalism.
Communities should report to Zinwa or other law enforcement agencies all acts of actual or suspected vandalism. As a country we can no longer afford to be continuously held down by human actions that can be dealt with. Communities should take ownership of water infrastructure and guard it quite jealously.
- For more information please contact the Zinwa Corporate Communications and Marketing Department on [email protected] or [email protected] You can also like the Zimbabwe National Water Authority Facebook Page or alternatively follow us on Twitter @zinwawater.