Africa-Press – Namibia. RESIDENTS of Aus in the //Kharas region say they are fed up with the unreliable provision of basic services at the settlement.
Leilani Kushman said this week that residents have been struggling for a prolonged period with the unavailability of water, electricity and network coverage. An MTC tower was knocked down a month ago by heavy rains and has been fixed. However, every time there are power cuts, network coverage is affected.
“We complain so many times about water, because on weekends we have no water. But the responsible lady at the settlement office, which is supposed to be our municipality, says she reports the breakdowns to NamWater and the regional council at Keetmanshoop, but they do nothing. So, who should we go to?” Kushman asked.
Kushman has been a resident of Aus for the past three years. She alleges that tenders for electricity and water maintenance are reportedly being given to people without knowledge, skills and resources to do the work.
“The last time when our electricity went off and we called for an electrician, the person came here with a taxi from Keetmanshoop, only looked at the infrastructure and left without fixing it. He came back maybe two days later…and only then fixed the electricity. How can we go on like that?” Kushman asked.
Karen Prinsloo, a business owner at the town, this week said she is greatly disappointed with the manner in which the settlement is managed.
“I run a service station. How do you tell a traveller they cannot use the toilet because there is no water. Do you know how angry they get and accuse you of providing a poor service?
Our reputation suffers while we are not at fault,” said Prinsloo.
Prinsloo said at night they have to buy a bottle of water to wash themselves or wash the dishes.
“We pay for these services monthly, but we are the ones being inconvenienced. Nobody cares whether things work or not,” said the business owner. The residents are threatening to stage a demonstration to have their demands heard.
“We feel it is the only way attention will be given to this settlement, because nobody hears us,” said Kushman.
The residents also held a demonstration in 2019, demanding the removal of settlement administrator Sophia Koopman.
Koopman yesterday said since October last year, the settlement has been facing challenges and going for days without water, as the water level at the reservoir is standing at 40%. She says due to this, on some days there is no inflow into the tanks providing water to the settlement.
“We have been communicating this matter to NamWater, as it is responsible for water provision, but the reservoir is running dry. So, we have been communicating the water challenge to the residents and we have taken it up with the regional council and the traditional authority,” said Koopman.
She dismissed claims that her office is doing nothing about the matter.
“Our office has been transporting the local NamWater representative daily to the reservoirs to open them for inflow. We have been helping schools to fill up their containers directly from the reservoir for their hostel toilets and showers, and have been asking the community to work sparingly with water,” she said.
//Kharas acting chief regional officer Bennie Diergaardt on Monday said the council and NamWater are working on a strategy to pump water from Neckertal Dam to Aus, as five of the 15 boreholes providing water to the settlement have run dry.
“The water levels in the boreholes have dropped drastically due to the nine-year drought. And if there is no rain, the underground water tables do not fill up to provide water for the tanks and reservoirs.
So, we are looking at long-term solutions of how to provide water from existing dams,” said Diergaardt.
He said the council will investigate the issue of electricians as they use a pool of electricians approved by the Ministry of Works and Transport.
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