The Democratic Alliance will be writing to the Municipal Manager of the Capricorn District Municipality(CDM), Ramakuntwane Selepe, to consider cost effective and technological measures to safeguard municipal water infrastructure.

Over the last three financial years the municipality spent more than R8 million on electrifying water projects and R 6 350 506.27 to replace vandalized water infrastructure, excluding vandalised transformers.

These funds could have been used to upgrade water infrastructure safeguarding technology, such as security cameras to protect municipal water infrastructure from vandalism.

The municipality currently relies on security firms to render this service at a budget of R25 million, yet only R15 million is set aside for security of water infrastructure.

In the City of Cape Town where the DA governs, water infrastructure is highly protected with solar backup security cameras on sites and tracker beams which alerts security of suspicious activities.

We call on CDM to migrate to smart technology to protect the infrastructure that serves our communities.

Reliance on physical security personnel is more costly and not sufficient to deal with the scourge of vandalism of municipal infrastructure.

Residents of CDM have a right to uninterrupted water supply, that is not affected by continuous stoppages as a result of vandalized infrastructure.

 

Issued by Tiny Doraine Ramathabatha Chidi - DA Councillor - Capricorn District Municipality