Vandalism is a man made Security Threat to ESCOM. It is all about destruction and damage of ESCOM property that carry power from its Generation plants, Transmission and Distribution networks and eventually to the commercial and domestic users. The installations affected on this are transformers and the connecting cables because of the following substances/accessories found in them:

In the transformer The Transformer Oi The Copper Windings Blades And Copper Cables at the transformer/earth mat

Other Threats Vandalism of tower members Conductor theft Armed robbery Meter tampering Illegal connections

CONDUCTOR THEFT
ESCOM as one of the largest users of electrical conductors is faced with large scale conductor theft. Investigations have revealed that 99% of cable stolen from ESCOM is sold to scrap dealers throughout the country. Both aluminum and copper are highly sought after in the scrap market with copper being the more desirable of the two due to its much higher price in the market.

GENERAL EFFECTS AS A RESULT OF VANDALISM AND THEFT

Replacement of the damaged installations by new ones Failure of maintenance and construction of new lines ESCOM spends more money in buying extra Materials to meet both maintenance and new jobs Few customers access to electricity. Only about 10% of the population has electricity

Customers wait for longer period to be assisted. ESCOM loses Revenue The economy of the country is affected by lack of investors Essential social services are disrupted.

SECURITY
ESCOM together with police have embarked on two initiatives. The first one is an ESCOM/MALAWI POLICE SERVICE ANTI VANDALISM PROJECT. This initiative is tackling the problem countrywide. The Southern Region Police also introduced an initiative of anti vandalism where all stakeholders formed an ANTI VANDALISM TASK TEAMS to tackle the problem within Southern Region, which is the most affected. Both initiatives are being run simultaneously with the following activities:

• Anti vandalism awareness campaigns – This is an “OPEN DAY INITIATIVE” where meetings are organised with the locals in specific areas. The aim being to raise awareness to the masses on the effects and dangers of Vandalism/Conductor theft and empower the community through community policing forums on anti vandalism.
• Deployment of investigation teams in order to block the markets
• Conduct joint operations with police to recover vandalised/stolen items and arrest the vandals.
• As part of sensitisation and public awareness dangers of Vandalism Conductor theft ESCOM has and is issuing posters, leaflets and adverts on the print and electronic media.
• Realising that the battle against Vandalism/Conductor theft needs support, ESCOM has come up with a Reward Policy, the scope of which is to reward informants leading to the recovery of ESCOM’s stolen property and equipment or arrest of people vandalising or planning to vandalise electricity equipment.
• The Policy provide a reward of 15% of the cost of repairing a vandalised equipment to an informant subject to a minimum of K5,000.00 and a maximum of K100,000.00
• It is expected that the approach will cement the existing community policing structures. It will also breed a sense of ownership of the equipment by the communities thus the fight against vandals will be tackled at grass root level with the communities playing a leading role of protecting the equipment.