WHY BRASS WATER TAPS ARE BEING STOLEN.

 Across Kenya, brass water taps are increasingly being stolen from homes and residential areas raising concern among property owners. These taps are commonly used because they are strong and do not rust easily. However, because they are made of brass, they have also become attractive to thieves who look for items that can be sold for quick cash in the informal scrap metal market.

After being stolen, the taps often end up in informal resale channels where they may be sold as they are or broken into pieces to hide where they came from. This makes it very difficult to recover them or trace where they were taken from. The removal of these taps usually leaves pipes exposed leading to water leakages.

As demand for scrap metal remains high, brass water taps continue to be targeted more often. This shows a growing problem in protecting basic water infrastructure where even small household fittings are now at risk because of their value in the scrap metal trade.