Walvis Bay shack fires irk Venaani

The leader of the official opposition party McHenry Venaani has requested the mayor of Walvis address the issue of shack fire with urgency.

Venaani in a letter to Trevino Forbes dated 10 May, said there is a need for a more holistic approach to the prevention of shack fires in the town.

He said this includes better planning of informal settlements and enforcement of legislation to build houses at least 10m from each other.

Currently, local government policy is designed to force poor residents into small and densely populated pieces of land without access roads. They are often denied water, electricity, proper plumbing and sanitation. Without the security of tenure, residents are forced to build their homes with cheap flammable material rather than bricks and mortar, said Venaani.

According to him, shack fires and shack settlements, in general, are symptoms of a wider social malaise rather than core problems in themselves.

Venaani further added that shacks are a direct result of political decisions which are linked to institutional capacity, financial constraints and access to land.

Shack fires are avoidable and the Walvis Bay municipality ought to act before we are forced to deal with another tragedy that results in the loss of life and property, added Venaani.

Walvis Bay battles with shack fires on a monthly basis, as shacks are constructed with flammable material because of the corrosive weather condition at the town.

The latest incident was reported on 5 May when a man allegedly poured paraffin in the backyard shack of his girlfriend and set it on fire.

The fire spread to seven other shacks in the same yard, including a garage and two brick rooms.

Walvis Bay mayor confirmed having received the letter from Venaani.

Forbes says the town is currently working on plans to get rid of backyard shacks through expediting the servicing of Farm 37 which is about 12km east of the town.

“Walvis Bay is the only town in Namibia that does not have a recognised informal settlement. The majority of land is in the hands of the government and we are waiting on the lawmakers to approve our request to have the town boundary extended,” he said.

Forbes added that the decongesting of shacks at Twaloloka illegal settlement was done resulting in no fires reported there.

“The challenge is the backyard shacks. We continue to urge people to detach and make space between the shacks. However, that also proves to be a challenge because the yards run out of space and we have nowhere to put the people,” he said.

Walvis Bay has very few pockets of land left for residential dwellings.

The majority of the undeveloped land is the hands of developers.

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