Pupils sent home after water outage in Katutura

Pupils at several schools in Katutura were sent home on Thursday following a prolonged water supply interruption that left schools unable to operate.

The schools include Hage G. Geingob High School, Havana High School, Moses ||Garoëb Primary School, Tobias Hainyoko Primary School and many other schools in the area.

Parents and residents said the water shortages were affecting daily routines, with households struggling to cook, clean and prepare children for school.

Some pupils were turned away shortly after arriving at school, while others did not attend at all.

Residents in areas such as Goreangab said the outage began early in the morning, with communal taps and household connections running dry.

A Katutura Goreangab resident, Ephraim Mweatu (22) said the disruption caused stress particularly for workers returning from night shifts.

“I woke up to fetch water and there was nothing,” Mweatu said.

He complained that the water, when available, was of poor quality and that residents were left exposed to harsh conditions while trying to access basic services.

“The water stinks, and the sun is burning us while we are standing here trying to fetch water,” he said.

Mweti accused the City of Windhoek of failing Katutura residents despite them paying for services.

“They are not serious with us. We are paying for water, but the service is poor,” he said

The City of Windhoek confirmed that the water disruption was linked to repair works on a major pipeline supplying the northern industrial area and Katutura.

In a notice issued to residents, the municipality said: “The 600 mm bulk water supply pipeline was successfully repaired at midnight on 21 January 2026.”

The city explained that restoring supply took time due to the scale of the infrastructure.

“Due to the extent of the repair works, reservoir levels were significantly low at the time of completion. Since then, efforts have focused on refilling the pipelines and restoring reservoir levels,” the notice read.

The municipality added that water restoration was happening in phases.

“Given the magnitude of the pipeline, water supply restoration is gradual.

“Some parts of the affected areas are already receiving water, while full supply to all areas is expected to be restored later as reservoir levels continue to stabilise,” the notice read.

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