City of Windhoek’s response to water leak ‘poor’ say residents

Windhoek’s Donkerhoek residents awoke to find their household contents wet and damaged after a pipe burst early on Saturday morning.

The water leak has affected four homes.

While the City of Windhoek’s workers are attending to the matter, residents say the response was not timely.

Resident Inamuvulwa Willibard says her family, including her 75-year-old mother, were woken by the water leak at around 04h00 on Saturday which damaged household furniture and other belongings.

Willibard expressed disappointment in the municipality’s ‘poor’ response.

“The municipality should improve communication and timely response,” she says.

Another resident, Ayeshe Willibard, expressed uncertainty about whether the replacement pipes are stronger than the previous ones.

Panduleni Nakanyala says this is the third time a pipe has burst in the area.

Nakanyala lives with her grandfather and eight-year-old daughter, and says most of her belongings are still wet.

“You can see it is raining and the pipe burst, the condition will not improve anytime soon. My daughter’s school uniform was washed away with the water,” she says, adding that food and other items were also lost.

Vicky Andjamba (18), who was the first person in her household to wake up after a part of her neighbour’s boundary wall collapsed into their yard hitting a window, says the experience has left her feeling traumatised.

“I was confused and our dog outside was also running around.”

The residents told The Namibian they spent the morning attempting to get the water out of their homes.

Despite sending a team to attend to the matter, the City of Windhoek has not provided comment on how regularly worn pipes are replaced, with the municipality’s spokesperson, Lydia Amutenya, not responding by the time of publication.

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