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Stolen pipes health hazard, Illovo warns
By
Our Reporter - 24-06-2002 |
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Illovo Sugar Company has warned the general public against using pots and other kitchen utensils made from aluminium pipes used for irrigation which were stolen from its Nchalo sugar estate, saying they posed a health hazard since the aluminium was in crude form.
Sugar Corporation of Malawi public relations officer Irene Phalula, in a written response to a questionnaire, says aluminium from the irrigation pipes can easily scrape off hence releasing the crude metal which can contaminate food.
“Cooking food in posts cast from aluminium pipes poses a potential health hazard and we, therefore, caution the general public, for their own safety, to refrain from using pots made of aluminium pipes,” reads a warning from the company.
Phalula says, however, that normal aluminium pots sold in shops have aluminium which is modified and, therefore, safer for human use than those made from aluminium irrigation pipes.
Thefts of the irrigation pipes have been rampant at Nchalo in Chikwawa costing the company up to K95 million in lost revenue last year alone. The pipes are sold to tinsmiths who smelt the portions to make cooking pots and other kitchen utensils.
Large numbers of irrigation pipes and hundreds of tonnes of sugar cane valued at over K5 million have since been stolen.
Phalula said police, Securicor Malawi and the general public have assisted the company to recover items worth K842,000 from the vandals. She also said since April, 2001 police arrested 24 suspects out of whom 20 were convicted in courts of law.
Nchalo Estate/Factory general manager George O’Reilley told journalists last November that between 2000 and April 2001, at least 400 suspects were arrested out of whom 280 were convicted.
The stolen pipes caused a 32 percent shortfall of pipes at the estate, disabling the company from irrigating 1,500 hectares of sugar cane daily. |
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