Council dump puts our health at risk: residents

RESIDENTS of Othingo village, in the Uukwambi area of Oshana Region, have accused the Oshakati Municipality of putting their health at risk.

When a rubbish dump the municipality has placed in the village is set alight, residents say, the smoke pollution provokes fits of coughing. Othingo, a dormitory village one kilometre west of Oshakati, is one of the towns identified by the municipality a few years ago as needing to move for development in future years.”This rubbish dump is really a big problem to our health,” Eddy Iyambo, leader of the concerned villagers, told The Namibian last weekend.Iyambo said the residents were not against development but the municipality should relocate the dump.Iyambo said that one day growing crops had withered and died due to the heat emanating from the burning dump.All the rubbish collected from shops, hospitals, garages and other places is disposed of there.Iyambo said the residents were now planning to stage a demonstration, after the Oshakati Chief Executive Officer, John Nghihepa, had not responded to an approach from them.The head of the municipality’s health department, Theopoline Kakololo, said that, given the location of Oshakati, this was the only spot in which rubbish could be dumped.She said the municipality understood the villagers’ complaints but had no alternative solution.To dump rubbish outside the town limits would be illegal, she said.But Kakololo pledged that the municipality would look into the matter once it was formally brought to the office.Othingo, a dormitory village one kilometre west of Oshakati, is one of the towns identified by the municipality a few years ago as needing to move for development in future years. “This rubbish dump is really a big problem to our health,” Eddy Iyambo, leader of the concerned villagers, told The Namibian last weekend. Iyambo said the residents were not against development but the municipality should relocate the dump. Iyambo said that one day growing crops had withered and died due to the heat emanating from the burning dump. All the rubbish collected from shops, hospitals, garages and other places is disposed of there. Iyambo said the residents were now planning to stage a demonstration, after the Oshakati Chief Executive Officer, John Nghihepa, had not responded to an approach from them. The head of the municipality’s health department, Theopoline Kakololo, said that, given the location of Oshakati, this was the only spot in which rubbish could be dumped. She said the municipality understood the villagers’ complaints but had no alternative solution. To dump rubbish outside the town limits would be illegal, she said. But Kakololo pledged that the municipality would look into the matter once it was formally brought to the office.