WINDHOEK: Okahandja residents occupying unserviced municipal land in the fast-growing informal settlement of FiveRand have resorted to using waste water from the NamWater industrial pipeline flowing into the riverbed adjacent to the settlement.
Speaking to Nampa recently while bathing and washing their clothes in the riverbed, a group of children said although they are not sure if the water is safe for humans, it is a reliable source for their daily usage as the community does not have enough water points.
They said there are limited communal water points in the vast informal area, therefore many households near the riverbed have resorted to using the waste water for doing their laundry, bathing and sometimes even cooking.
The Namibia Water Corporation’s (NamWater) Chief Strategy Officer, Kadiva Hamutumwa indicated that the water is untreated and therefore unfit for human consumption. She said residents are constantly urged not to utilise the water other than for gardening purposes.
Hamutumwa said the pipeline was installed as a precautionary measure to transport excess water from the ponds in the event of an operational breakdown, such as when the recovery pumps fail, which has the potential to flood the entire area and damage or even break the pond embankment.
A resident, Makina Mukula who has been living in the area since 2016, said residents have been requesting additional water points and electricity from the municipality, stressing that water is scarce and sometimes when people cannot afford to top up their communal water tokens; it also forces them to use the riverbed water.
“We have been requesting for water for years, but nothing. However, the municipality has given us numbers at this point to maybe formalise us, perhaps more water is coming soon too,” he noted.
Okahandja constituency councillor, Bathuel Tjaveondja in an interview with Nampa stressed that land grabbing has put the local authority under immense pressure to ensure the provision of basic municipal services. The municipality is currently engaging on the matter to ensure the provision of more communal water points and electricity for Okahandja’s informal settlements, including FiveRand.
“The Okahandja population is growing rapidly on a daily basis and when the council budgets for five water points in that financial period, more are needed. People are forced to wake up at 04h00 to queue up for water to make sure they get water, sometimes even from a distance of many kilometres. We are engaging with the community to dig the water pipeline once the procurement of the equipment has been finalised,” he noted.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency