Fire leaves 138 people without shelter

WALVIS Bay mayor Trevino Forbes promising that the Walvis Bay municipality would accelerate the delivery of residential land at Farm 37, located 12 kilometres out of the town.

Forbes made this promise on Saturday while attending to a shack fire that left 138 people without shelter at Tutaleni location. “You would have noted that councillors have been pushing for the delivery of Farm 37 in the last council meeting. Come next year, we will be pushing very hard. Our people cannot live like this,” he said.

The fire broke out around 13h30 on Saturday and destroyed 25 backyard shacks and three houses on different erven.

This comes three weeks after another fire left 11 backyard shacks destroyed at Kuisebmond.

Erongo police community affairs coordinator sergeant Anastasia Frans says the fire allegedly broke out at 6205 Guinea Fowl Street, where nine shacks and the main house burned down.

“It is further alleged that the fire spread over to other neighbouring houses and destroyed another 16 ghettos,” she said.

Frans added that no fatalities or injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, as police investigations continue.

A backyard shack dweller at the scene confronted Forbes about when landless residents would be settled at Farm 37.

“We are tired of this issue of ghettos burning every day,” he said.

Walvis Bay rural constituency regional councillor Tegako Donatus, in whose area the majority of shacks are located, said the situation is out of control, and called on the central government to step in.

“Hear our cry and come and assist the municipality of Walvis Bay to relocate our people to Farm 37, which comes a long way. We heard about it before we became councillors.

“The municipal councillors are pushing hard but it cannot become a reality if the government is not stepping in,” he said.

The latest fire happened a day after the world marked Human Rights Day on 10 December.

Housing is internationally recognised as a human right which is also enshrined in the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and identified in goal 11 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which concerns “Sustainable Cities and Communities”.

Walvis Bay Fire Brigade head Dennis Basson said although they responded to the emergency call on time, fire trucks were obstructed by onlookers and vehicles parked in the road.

Basson said parents living in backyard shacks should not leave cooking fires unattended, especially during the festive season.

“The problem that we have is people are in the mood of celebrating. To the parents, please stay at home and whenever you are cooking, complete the cooking process, don’t leave it unattended because that is one of the main causes of fires.”

The mayor’s office provided the fire victims with tents, blankets and food while firefighters began the process of removing debris so that the victims could rebuild their homes.

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