Three children squat and defecate among a heap of rubbish, a goat chews on a discarded plastic bag and an elderly woman picks up something from the trash to take home.
This is the scene that greets visitors along the dusty streets of townships such as Kanaan at Gobabis. At night, the streetlights remain off.
“Because the youth steal the cables to buy alcohol,” mayor Elwin Gariseb says. The town’s constituency councillor, Liberius Kalili, agrees.
“The municipality will clean today, but tomorrow you will see garbage lying around,” Kalili says.
The Namibian visited different areas at Gobabis, including Kanaan A, B, C and U, which all have the same litter problem.
“I don’t know what is with residents now. These things did not happen in the past,” Kalili told the publication last week.
Kalili said Gobabis residents have a tendency of throwing rubbish around for no reason.
He said his office, together with the Gobabis Municipality, will have a mass clean-up campaign to remove heaps of rubbish from the town ahead of the Miss Namibia pageant on 1 August.
He said residents often complain about the town’s development.
He added that development cannot happen when available funds are used on cleaning up communities over and over.
He warned that those found littering will be required to pay a fine.
“It is not healthy. We need to give more education and set up a penalty for those littering, having money or not, because this polluted garbage will create diseases,” he said.
DARK STREETS
Reporters also questioned why several streetlights across town are not working despite poles still standing. Kalili said all streetlights were functional until copper wires were stolen about three months ago.
He said the municipality will have all streetlights functional before Miss Namibia.
“We don’t have a budget for it, but we have to go the extra mile,” Kalili said.
Last Monday during Telecom Namibia’s quarterly meeting with the board of directors, minister of information and communication technology Emma Theofelus said the government is considering stronger laws and enforcement measures to curb copper cable theft.
She said the government had already held a meeting with relevant stakeholders to discuss ways of tackling the growing problem.
Telecom Namibia said the theft damaged its telecommunications infrastructure, affecting customers in Flora, Victoria, Cleopatra, Fortuna, Palma, Irene, Juno, Nosta and Ara streets.
The company urged members of the public to report suspicious activities near Telecom Namibia infrastructure to the police or the nearest Telecom Namibia office.
Gariseb last Wednesday said residents continue to litter while skip bins are empty, despite the municipality collecting garbage continuously.
“It’s a mentality of residents that cleaning is the municipality’s responsibility,” he said.
He said 70% of Gobabis’ residential areas are informal settlements that do not generate rates and tax revenue for the council, while only 30% contribute through rates and taxes.
“Formal settlements that carry the town are fewer than informal settlements. By 2029, we will have more informal settlements and less formal settlements,” Gariseb said.
NO TOILETS
Kanaan A, B, C and U do not even have toilets or running taps. However, Gariseb said the municipality had provided toilets for them but residents have vandalised them.
“Building toilets is a concept that if residents can understand ownership, then it can work. Destroying municipal facilities is a habit,” he said.
He raised concerns about the government not allocating a budget to the town. President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah declared housing a national emergency last month but residents still lack proper housing and community facilities.
“The government is not taking local authorities seriously,” he said.
He said formalisation of informal settlements is done based on availability of funds and they are waiting for a budget.
“In order to do all those things, you should have money,” he said.
Kanaan U resident Melanie Veldskoen (43) says littering is the residents’ issue, not the municipality. She adds that some residents pick up rubbish to take home.
She says residents litter all over, despite bins provided for them.
“It is not healthy,” she says, adding that children play in the rubbish.
