Hakahana residents in desperate need of services

Several Hakahana households do not have water, sewerage, toilets and electricity services, a situation which has been ongoing for years.

Many Hakahana residents rely on communal prepaid standpipes.

Residents like Angela Naobes, who sometimes knocks off work late at night, fears for her safety in the absence of streetlights in the area.

“The council told us electricity will come but up to now, it”;s been two years… The municipality should have gone to ErongoRed to do something for us because it”;s them that moved us,” she said.

A few years ago, Hakahana residents who were living in congested conditions were relocated at the initiative of the community and the municipality.

Resident Lourensia Garises called on the municipality to provide outdoor taps, toilets and electricity to their households.

“When we collect water, we have to rent someone”;s wheelbarrow. We, who do not have our own property, must pay someone N$100 to buy water there and share that person”;s card,” she stressed.

“We don”;t even have toilets, we have to go to the bushes when we have diarrhoea. If you walk, it”;s very far and it”;s not safe.”

Sigberth Mangundu, chairperson of the Omaruru Town Council and former secretary of the Hakahana Community Committee confirmed the lack of services at Hakahana from extension 5 to 9.

He said ErongoRed delayed the electrification of those areas.

“We don”;t know what happened, up to today they say they are still coming. In their report they said they have electrified Hakahana, and they have, but the half of Hakahana has no electricity.

“People are crying in that darkness. That is the only part that ErongoRed must come on board and do their part,” said Mangundu.

“In terms of water, we are doing well. The line of water is almost in every erf. We are busy working on the water issue and by December, we will complete the water installation.”

The installation of toilets, however, is challenged by a lack of funding.

“It is quite costly, and with the government no longer funding capital projects, that”;s a problem. We need to finance most of our capital projects ourselves.

“Remember throughout Covid-19, people were not paying the municipality, but we are trying our level best to make sure we pay for our sewerage system and fully establish sanitation.”

The Omaruru municipality has reserved N$3 million for the electrification of Hakahana.

ErongoRed CEO Immanuel !Hanabeb said the electrification of Hakahana was divided into two phases to reduce the high costs of electrifying the whole settlement at once.

“For Hakahana phase 2, just over 269 dwellings were identified for electrification. Bidders were invited to submit bids during the 2019/2020 financial year, however, due to financial constraints, the project was put on hold until such a time that the company has the means to commence with the project,” said !Hanabeb.

He said they have limited resources which need to be shared among different localities that require electrification.

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