Theft of water metres on the rise
Kampala- Many homeowners in Jinja Municipality are increasingly staying awake longer in the night because of a wave of theft of water metres in the area.
The thieves reportedly steal the metres between 3am and 4am when many owners are asleep.
It is the gushing water that wakes up the proprietors. But because they fear for their lives, they seldom venture out to confront the thieves.
The National Water & Sewerage Corporation’s (NW&SC) public relations officer, Mr Samuel Apedel, on Sunday acknowledged incidents.
Mr Apedel added that it would be an exaggeration to say there is a spike.
The Jinja District NW&SC general manager, Mr Charles Okuonzi, said in March alone, 22 metres were reported stolen while in May, 17 were stolen.
“We are aware of the problem because we keep getting reports from customers,” Mr Okuonzi said in response to the Daily Monitor’s query. “We have involved the police and the Internal Security Organisation to establish the people behind the thefts,” he added.
Mr Okuonzi said the preliminary information NW&SC has suggests it is scrap dealers who buy the metres for heat up to make iron products.
The corporation and security officials have on some occasion gone, unannounced, to some scrap dealers premises with the hope of chancing on its meters.
However, they did not find any.
But there are strong indications, Mr Okuonzi said, that scrap dealers are driving the thefts.
Additionally, there is a claim that some of the stolen metres from different parts of Uganda are transported to South Sudan for sale.
But one would have to steal many for it to make business sense transporting and selling them in South Sudan.
In the past, thieves would steal water meters for brass, which they would reportedly use to make fake Shs500 coins.
The meters NW&SC now installs at premises do not have brass in them.
Mr Okuonzi urged homeowners who have lost their meters to report the matter to police.
However, one homeowner, who preferred anonymity and resides near the Jinja Central Police Station said the police have never helped.
