Residents from informal settlements at Keetmanshoop in the ||Kharas region are facing ongoing water supply challenges due to vandalism of communal water infrastructure.
Kanona Shimuafeleni, an affected resident, describes using public toilets and communal taps in the informal settlement as equivalent to not having access to water and sanitation services.
“We want to know what will the municipality do about us as residents of this town who are left without water for long periods of time. Sometimes you walk for almost a kilometre to get to a tap with your buckets only to find that there is no water,” she says.
Shimuafeleni says sometimes weeks can pass without residents having access to water or toilet facilities as the caps of the taps, or pipes are broken, while toilets are filled with rocks, paper or sharp objects.
“We constantly have to make plans with our relatives or friends living in other areas to bring us water for which they charge us at times, yet we can not live without water,” says Shimuafeleni.
Another resident, Agnes Witbooi, says disruptions in washing, cleaning and cooking are her biggest challenges now that her children returned from the holidays.
“This scenario can make you cry. How do we bathe, with what must we clean, and wash our children’s school uniforms?” questions Witbooi.
Former mayor of Keetmanshoop Melody Swartbooi agrees that community members face challenges in this regard.
During her time on the council, Swartbooi had assured the community that the council would look into providing immediate and long term measures to lessen the impact of vandalism on communal water infrastructure and the suffering of the community.
“Based on what we are hearing, the council will have to do an inventory of all the broken taps and infrastructure to fix what is broken. Secondly, there is a need for security features, perhaps like cages for taps or caps that would require community members to open the caps with a key left with certain community members they vote for,” said Swartbooi.
She has since been removed as mayor and councillor by her party, Landless People’s Movement.
At the time the former mayor stressed that it was council’s duty to intervene in the matter to ensure continued access to water, and safeguard sustainable water services for all residents.
