SCRAP METAL DEALERS COMING OF AGE

In a curious turn of events people suspected of being thieves who supply scrap metal dealers with stolen materials have ravaged public water dispensing stations in Usari,Orori,Mulama,Manushi Sinde and Manushi Ndoo villages in Hai and Moshi rural districts stealing one inch bronze water taps in an apparently well coordinated two night operation. The scarcity of raw material for metal industries has led to a booming scrap metal business worldwide and  blurred the distinction between scrap and working metallic items. Bronze fetches more money per unit weight than iron, so does copper and brass.

In stealing the water dispensing taps the thieves are adding to the known list of curious things they steal nowadays which include household items such as cooking pots, hoes, metal buckets etc together with public utility components such as bridge components, road signs, electric pylon girders etc. An interesting extent was the snatching of a church bell in Kirua Vunjo last year deeming the respect paid to houses of faith irrelevant in the eyes of money, also maybe bringing back the proceedings as offerings in the same church (who knows?).

The looting of water dispensing taps has rendered unserviceable the affected dispensing stations which are part of a water project funded by the German government via KFW bank to service the said villages. This puts a dent on donors’ efforts to help the government solve water availability to the people and needless to say stretches further the already tight circumstances of the European Union countries funding public projects here.

The local metal industry is also on the spot for making substandard items,especially reinforcement steel bars used in construction work which are produced from scrap metal undergoing minimal treatment before bar production to maximize profit and endanger lives.The scrap metal so used is known to be molten intact with rust and cast as bars.