Replacing manhole covers

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Joburg Water starts replacing manhole covers NEARLY R4-million has been set aside to replace missing manhole covers in hot spots across the city where residents' safety is threatened. March 11, 2005 By Lucky Sindane JOHANNESBURG Water has set aside R3,9-million to replace missing and vandalised manhole covers and valve and meter box covers over the next four months. This is part of a two-year, R10-million project the water utility is undertaking to replace its iron manhole covers, which are often vandalised or stolen, with new ones that are made of concrete. However, in the interim it has identified hot spots where missing covers - both of manholes and valve and meter boxes - pose a threat to residents. These will be replaced as a matter of urgency. "We sent people across the city to investigate and identify hot spot areas," said Jameel Chand, the Joburg Water spokesperson, admitting that the problem was citywide. Missing manhole and meter box covers posed a serious safety threat to the community. "The theft of manhole covers and meter covers is an ongoing crime that affects Johannesburg Water and the residents of the city. It leads to increased personal injury and damage to property," Chand said. Thieves remove the iron covers to sell them to scrap metal merchants. The new covers will be made of a polymer mixture consisting mainly of concrete and will have no resale or scrap value. "We have decided to use covers that do not have any scrap value wherever possible. Where covers with scrap value are to be used, they will be fixed to the frame to make them difficult to remove," Chand added. The drive is in conjunction with the City's safety awareness campaign, which was launched by Johannesburg mayor, Councillor Amos Masondo, in February. The campaign aims to highlight safety hazards, ranging from rivers and uncovered manholes to exposed electricity cables, fires in informal settlements or buildings, accidents affecting pedestrians and hazardous building infrastructure. It was initiated in part in memory of Karabo Gwala, who drowned after falling into an open drain at a construction site in Dube, Soweto, in February 2004. Johannesburg Water has urged residents to continue reporting missing covers to the company's 24-hour call centre on 011 688 1500. It also has a toll free, Tip-Off Anonymous service on 0800 15000 which residents can use to report information regarding the theft of covers. This service is completely confidential and will help Johannesburg Water and the South African Police Service track down and arrest culprits. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za