Call for security measures to protect infrastructure amid threat of water tanker mafias
The Water Institute of Southern Africa has called for urgent security measures for the country's water infrastructure amid the threat posed by water tanker mafias.
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Security for water installations and assets is urgently needed to deal with the threat of so-called water tanker mafias who damage infrastructure in order to gain from lucrative contracts from municipalities.
This is according to Dr Lester Goldman, CEO of the Water Institute of Southern Africa.
He noted that the SA Human Rights Commission has previously suggested that damage to water infrastructure should be treated as terrorism in terms of the Protection of the Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Amendment Act.
The law’s notion of terrorism includes acts of sabotage against essential services, facilities and systems, or their delivery.
“Although severe penalties are necessary, we need to focus on prevention by securing water installations and assets,” said Goldman.
Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo recently said that municipalities will “begin deploying technology such as surveillance systems, remote sensors and smart infrastructure”, but Goldman questioned 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 said.
He said in this light, installation security needed to be much broader, removing both the opportunity and the incentive, from the mafias and their conspirators.
Goldman added that simple security measures could be included in the SCADA (Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition) systems that municipalities use to monitor system health and control installation operations remotely.
“A simple, cheap light sensor inside an installation could be utilised to let system controllers know when someone has entered without authorisation,” said Goldman, noting that such solutions are so basic and cost-effective, they could be implemented almost immediately.
He added that municipalities should also 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,” said Goldman.
He said communities need 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 said.