Nobody wants to take responsibility for Acacia

HOUSES in Acacia were built with municipal approval, the City of Windhoek says, but it contends that it cannot be blamed for flooding that destroyed property there.

In response to an inquiry from The Namibian, the City said building plans for the Acacia development were circulated to its departments of health, water and sewerage, urban policy, roads and stormwater, the planning division and the fire department for comment. Two weeks since the Arebbusch River broke its banks for the second time in less than two years, flooding an entire street of houses in the Acacia area, the municipality has finally broken its silence – to defend criticism against it from residents that it had failed them.”All departments had no objection against approving the plans for Acacia.Approval was therefore granted according to municipal regulations,” said City PublicRelations Officer Liz Sibindi.”The developer’s engineer issued a certificate that the foundation excavations, damp-proof course (a layer of waterproof material in the wall of a building near the ground) and sewer inspections were done according to the City of Windhoek-approved building plans.The engineer of the developer issued a certificate for the inspections done, which was delivered to our office by him.”The City said Nicolaas Pienaar, owner of Dannic Construction – the Acacia developer – was well within his rights to use an engineer of his choice to inspect these aspects of the properties instead of the City.However, the Windhoek Municipality is disputing Pienaar’s assertion that the development is no longer his responsibility and that he could not be held liable for the damage caused by the flooding.The municipality confirmed that Pienaar wrote to them in December to take over responsibility for the infrastructure, but in the absence of an engineering plan for the stormwater system, it was unable to process his application.Pienaar could not be reached for comment.Although the Municipality says it is has not yet taken responsibility for the Acacia development, it expects residents to pay rates and taxes.It says that these charges are for the maintenance of services throughout the City and not only for those rendered in the area where they live.”Handing over of services means that the City accepts the standard of services provided by the developer and accepts the maintenance responsibilities of the area in question as from the set date, which the City has not done yet because some outstanding technical matters are still to be addressed by the developer, after which only will the City take over responsibility for infrastructure at Acacia,” said Sibindi.Given the current situation and in accordance with its building regulations, the City says Acacia residents themselves are responsible for their property.According to the municipality’s building regulations, while a development is under construction, the property usually belongs to the developer.Once erven are sold and private individuals obtain a title deed for the property, it then belongs to the individual.The municipality says at this point the private person becomes responsible for the property, while the municipality holds the responsibility for maintaining services.”Thus if an act of God occurs, the property owner is responsible for his property.The municipality is or should only be a service provider,” the municipality told The Namibian on inquiry.The City has said the flooding of Acacia was a result of water damming up just beyond the bridge because of the natural narrowing of the river.It said it had started clearing rivers, catch-pits and culverts in November in preparation for the rains and did not find that refuse obstructed the flow of the river.Government hydrologist Guido van Langenhove, however, found that a culvert in Scheppmann Street, Pionierspark, might have led to overflow from the Van Rhijn Dam damming up at this point, causing flooding lower down in the channel because grates at the entrances of the culvert and huge mounds of sand on the other end prevented the free flow of water.In other parts of the City where houses were flooded because of the heavy rains, the City has acknowledged that drainage systems were inadequate to deal with the large amounts of water.But it says according to its policy, culverts are generally built to accommodate a once-in-20-year flood, while bridges are designed to accommodate a flood expected to occur once in 100 years.”In this area [Otjomuise and Okuryangava] simply too much water came down.The City follows set standards when designing culvert sizes.Should all river crossings be designed to accommodate huge floods, erven will be unaffordable,” said the municipality.Two weeks since the Arebbusch River broke its banks for the second time in less than two years, flooding an entire street of houses in the Acacia area, the municipality has finally broken its silence – to defend criticism against it from residents that it had failed them.”All departments had no objection against approving the plans for Acacia.Approval was therefore granted according to municipal regulations,” said City PublicRelations Officer Liz Sibindi.”The developer’s engineer issued a certificate that the foundation excavations, damp-proof course (a layer of waterproof material in the wall of a building near the ground) and sewer inspections were done according to the City of Windhoek-approved building plans.The engineer of the developer issued a certificate for the inspections done, which was delivered to our office by him.”The City said Nicolaas Pienaar, owner of Dannic Construction – the Acacia developer – was well within his rights to use an engineer of his choice to inspect these aspects of the properties instead of the City.However, the Windhoek Municipality is disputing Pienaar’s assertion that the development is no longer his responsibility and that he could not be held liable for the damage caused by the flooding.The municipality confirmed that Pienaar wrote to them in December to take over responsibility for the infrastructure, but in the absence of an engineering plan for the stormwater system, it was unable to process his application.Pienaar could not be reached for comment.Although the Municipality says it is has not yet taken responsibility for the Acacia development, it expects residents to pay rates and taxes.It says that these charges are for the maintenance of services throughout the City and not only for those rendered in the area where they live.”Handing over of services means that the City accepts the standard of services provided by the developer and accepts the maintenance responsibilities of the area in question as from the set date, which the City has not done yet because some outstanding technical matters are still to be addressed by the developer, after which only will the City take over responsibility for infrastructure at Acacia,” said Sibindi.Given the current situation and in accordance with its building regulations, the City says Acacia residents themselves are responsible for their property.According to the municipality’s building regulations, while a development is under construction, the property usually belongs to the developer.Once erven are sold and private individuals obtain a title deed for the property, it then belongs to the individual.The municipality says at this point the private person becomes responsible for the property, while the municipality holds the responsibility for maintaining services.”Thus if an act of God occurs, the property owner is responsible for his property.The municipality is or should only be a service provider,” the municipality told The Namibian on inquiry.The City has said the flooding of Acacia was a result of water damming up just beyond the bridge because of the natural narrowing of the river.It said it had started clearing rivers, catch-pits and culverts in November in preparation for the rains and did not find that refuse obstructed the flow of the river.Government hydrologist Guido van Langenhove, however, found that a culvert in Scheppmann Street, Pionierspark, might have led to overflow from the Van Rhijn Dam damming up at this point, causing flooding lower down in the channel because grates at the entrances of the culvert and huge mounds of sand on the other end prevented the free flow of water.In other parts of the City where houses were flooded because of the heavy rains, the City has acknowledged that drainage systems were inadequate to deal with the large amounts of water.But it says according to its policy, culverts are generally built to accommodate a once-in-20-year flood, while bridges are designed to accommodate a flood expected to occur once in 100 years.”In this area [Otjomuise and Okuryangava] simply too much water came down.The City follows set standards when designing culvert sizes.Should all river crossings be designed to accommodate huge floods, erven will be unaffordable,” said the municipality.