A BLACKBURN Village Informal Settlement resident has spoken out about the dangers of illegal connections and the impact it has on her life. Lorraine Shunmugam, who has lived in the village also known as Choppers Town for the past 52 years, says she is now forced to use illegal connections because both of her pre-paid electricity metres were burned out.
Shunmugam, who is a diabetic, said she has been paying for the electricity she uses but has now had to in effect ‘steal’ electricity to stay alive.
Hundreds of illegal connections dot the heavily populated settlement. Some of the connections are sellotaped together with long thin wires placed along the ground or sometimes buried under sand. They even run across the top of the roofs of some shacks, and occasionally snaking through tree branches.
This is the daily struggle for thousands of residents who call the settlement home. Not only are residents exposed to electrocuting themselves, several informal dwellings with shade cloth over them are also at risk of going up in flames should a connection short circuit and spark a fire, something Shunmugam is all too familiar with.
The illegal connections often lead to the short circuiting of transformers which often leaves residents powerless. This was the case last weekend as residents took to the N2 freeway to burn tyres and other debris in an attempt to highlight their plight. In that instance parts of the settlement were powerless for a week.
“Some of the illegal connections run across my asbestos roof which has shade cloth on it and it has previously caught fire. I’m worried if the City does not install pre-paid metres in homes something similar will happen again. Because of illegal connections, both my pre-paid metres have caught fire. I don’t have the money to keep replacing them and now I rely on illegal connections,” she explained.
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The 52-year-old said her health is also adversely affected by the illegal connections.
“Having diabetes requires much more planning and gathering of emergency supplies then people think. The insulin I use is very sensitive to sunlight, indoor lights, and to extremely hot temperatures, so I have to keep it refrigerated. But when the power goes I have to think of emergency measures. I am forced to travel further north to stay with my parents because we are never sure if, and when, the electricity will be restored. I want to pay for my electricity usage but I can’t do that. It’s an absolute nightmare,” she said.
Shunmugam said she has no doubts the illegal connections will once again cause a power outage.
“I wish the City could find a way to resolve this as I’m afraid this will happen again and affect some of us who are willing to pay for electricity,” she said.
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