Water crisis disrupts education at Kavango West school

Over 700 pupils at Tara Combined School at Musese in the Kavango West Region are facing a severe water crisis.

The situation has forced the school to shorten lessons, suspend afternoon studies, and close ablution facilities for both teachers and pupils.

Principal Mpareko Fiorinus Mpareke says the school has long struggled with access to water.

“Previously we used to get water from the borehole at the village called Masiro, which was not fit for human consumption and meant for animals before independence.

“That’s the water we’ve been using since we connected from the borehole at that particular village,” he says.

The school later switched to a pipeline from Manyando village, but the problem persists as the water supplied through a borehole through the pipeline had low pressure and could not reach the school.

“The directorate of education used to bring water sometimes, but it’s not enough,” he says.

Mpareke says he has recommended to the regional directorate of education that a borehole is drilled at the school, rather than sharing one with the community.

“While we are waiting for the borehole, at least they can look into boosting the water flow to feed the school tank,” the principal says.

The school also faces overcrowding challenges with pupils sharing chairs, while others sit on logs, Mpareke says.

Richard Shikongo from the Kavango West directorate of water supply and sanitation coordination has confirmed ongoing discussions with the school.

“What we want to do with that borehole from Manyando is actually to boost the water flow by ensuring that we put another tank and pump from that borehole to feed the pipeline just to increase the pressure this side of the school,” he says.

He says previous installation attempts were delayed due to community resistance, with the reserved pump being allocated elsewhere.

“Since the community has now agreed, we are going back to the drawing board, even though it will take a bit of time to mobilise the resources to come and do what we wanted to do,” Shikongo says. – Nampa

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