While severe penalties are necessary to combat damage to water infrastructure, there is a need to focus on prevention by securing water installations and assets, says Water Institute of Southern Africa CEO Dr Lester Goldman.

Discussing water tanker mafias, which are criminal organisations that disrupt water delivery so they can provide water tanker services at an inflated cost to municipalities, he further indicated that prevention at a systemic level was required, including having municipalities manage their own fleet of water tankers.

While Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo has said that municipalities will begin deploying technology such as surveillance systems, remote sensors and smart infrastructure, Goldman questions how systemic change will be achieved.

“How do these mafias even know they will win water delivery tenders once supply is disrupted, unless they are working with corrupt individuals within municipalities?” he questions.

“After all, investment in water tankers can run into the millions, so there must be a level of certainty that they will be awarded a contract.”

In this light, he says, installation security needs to be much broader, removing both the opportunity and the incentive, from the mafias and their conspirators.

Goldman points out that several suggestions have been put forward, including companies tendering for water tanker services should be audited by an impartial third party, and that tenders should also define how tankers will be tracked to ensure they perform the service as required, and how the water volume they deliver is monitored.

However, these approaches only address the quality of the service being delivered.

“They do nothing to remove the opportunity or incentive to damage infrastructure.”

A better suggestion is that municipalities should manage their own fleet of water tankers and not outsource the task to private contractors at all.

“Without the chance of being awarded a tender, there can be no reason for mafias to perform acts of sabotage, and they will have to seek their ill-gotten gains elsewhere,” he says.

“Because vandalism and theft by the water tanker mafias is so prevalent, basic installation and infrastructure security is a must. The fact that armed response, on-site guards, burglar alarms or similar grassroots measures do not appear to already be in use begs the question: why not?”

Many municipalities use supervisory control and data acquisition, or Scada, systems that allow them to monitor system health and control installation operations remotely.

“A simple, cheap light sensor inside an installation could be used to let system controllers know when someone has entered without authorisation,” says Goldman, noting that such solutions are so basic and cost-effective, they could be implemented almost immediately.

In the meantime, communities are suffering and should be eager to be part of the solution.

“Community involvement is critical to identifying saboteurs, so educating them on what they can do and how to report incidents safely should be a top priority for the government,” he says.

Further, any measures taken against the water tanker mafias will also serve to prevent common vandalism or theft of water assets.