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DAWASCO:Was precious water wasted by technicians?
2006-08-28 08:02:52
By Editor
Essential services, including water, telephone and power were last week disconnected in Sinza area by the Chinese company rehabilitating Sam Nujoma Road.
According to a random survey conducted by this paper, Survey and Makongo areas also experienced telephone cuts.
And for those not familiar with this part of Dar es Salaam, the University College of Lands and Architectural Studies ( UCLAS) is located in the neighbourhood.
Nonetheless, as the Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd ( TTCL) rushed to restore the damaged telephone lines and actually promised that service, would resume as soon as possible, technicians (or was it labourers), who could not be identified moved into Survey area and cut a main pipe that feeds a larger part of the locality.
This automatically disconnected water to the area , but there was no word from the water utility company to tell the residents what to do next.
The sad part of the incident is that while consumers were desperately looking for water, there was a lot of it spilling into the road and forming a mini river throughout Saturday night. Much of it watered people’s compounds and formed mud.
There could be no other evidence of how the precious liquid was wasted by the technicians, than press pictures published in this paper.
Needless to say, it was negligence on the part of the labourers who cut water pipes and left them unattended.
At this juncture, we would like to appeal to DAWASCO to restore water to its customers immediately and repair damaged pipes in an orderly manner.
If the technicians don’t mind wasting water, how can the company reprimand people who damage pipes to get illegal connections?
Get tough with embezzlers of govt funds
While addressing local government leaders last week, President Jakaya Kikwete said the law governing the management of public funds should be changed to provide room for the prosecution of embezzlers of public funds.
The President was shocked by the manner in which cases of misuse of district councils’ money were handled, saying the law was ’lenient’ to criminals.
Why were those who misuse councils’ money being questioned by the Prevention of Corruption Bureau?
Why should they be summoned by the disciplinary committees instead of being handed over to the police? All this shocked the President.
We think it is time, some laws were amended to suit modern times.
And this should be stretched to other areas for the wellbeing of the nation.
A law enacted four decades ago for example, may not help in a world that has seen so many changes. Today, Tanzania may be haunted by corruption and embezzlement than twenty years ago.
We thus hope that law makers won’t shelve this concern because as the President says, as long as the embezzlers are protected, the problem will linger on for ever.
A lot of money goes to the districts where various projects are meant to benefit the majority of people.
What purpose does it serve if those who misuse it simply get away with it ?
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