On 2006-12-02 08:24:26 +0000, Andy Burns said:

Jon wrote:

regularly has to visit the permanent traveller sites to replace the
copper piping from the toilet blocks

*if* that is so, you'd think the council would have cottoned-on and
replaced with plastic pipe by now ...

Well you would... but....

A business acquaintance in Johannesburg told me of the problems of
telecommunication cabling.

For many years there has been a common practice of stealing sections of
underground copper cable that are run through the sewers. The method
is to drive up to a manhole cover using a vehicle with appropriate tow
hood etc. and to attach that to the cable in some way and drive off.
A reasonable length of cable follows. Insulation is burnt off and
the copper gathered and sold.

More recently it was hoped that the introduction of fibre optic cables
would dissuade such thieves. Not a bit of it - the practice continues
- except this time, the fibre bundles are apparently cut and
incorporated into fibre optic lamps sold by traders at the roadside or
at traffic lights. It seems that the margin is higher than for copper.