Water woes leave Opuwo in the dust

“I HAVE lived in Opuwo for a long time and I have never experienced such a disaster,” said Mukaakozombe Thanohunga, a Himba woman from Otuzemba settlement on the north of Opuwo town.

Thanohunga carried a pot filled with water and a dirty five-litre jug of water that she bought for N$5 each in the town. “I was never in my lifetime in Opuwo in a situation to buy water to live,” she said.Opuwo has had no water for five months.But hope is in sight.NamWater and the Town Council have agreed to allow NamWater to manage water provision from Friday.”We signed an agreement on Tuesday that takes effect next Friday,” Opuwo Town Clerk Libertus Mbaumba told The Namibian on Thursday.As a result, NamWater has agreed to turn on the taps to allow residents to receive water.The town’s problem with pipes that are blocked by heavy deposits of lime still has to be addressed, however.Mayor Yaurikua Cornelius Kakuva dismissed the possibility that the ruling party, Swapo, was using his failure to eliminate him as a leader in the community.”I don’t think so, although there might be some individual people who want us to fail,” he said.All businesses in town are affected by the water shutdown.Edward Liang, who runs the China Jiansun Construction Co.in Opuwo, has a contract to build 50 homes for First National Bank (FNB).”I have stopped construction after 26 homes because there can be no water in these homes,” Liang said.He also struggles every day to find water for mixing concrete.”The bank and the people want their houses but they can’t get them because there is no water,” he said.Three men, sitting in the shade of their hut outside the town, worried about the cutting off of water.Simeon Jason said, “We are in the dark.We do not know whether we will get water or not in Opuwo.”Uapota Nangumba told The Namibian that a church in the town is providing water for the community but this will be expensive for poor, unemployed people.The pastors of 10 churches in town gathered recently to try to solve part of the problem.The move was led by Pastor Petersen Gideon of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in town.Gideon approached the embassies of the US, UK and Finland to seek help.Kapitango Ndjamba, assistant to Pastor Gideon, said a Seventh Day Adventist church group provided US$2 000 and the UK Embassy donated five water tanks and the trucks to deliver them to town.The churches used the money to build supports for the tanks, fences, taps and locks and to hire people to manage the tanks.In addition, the 10 churches donated N$50 each to help pay for the first filling of water at each tank.Ndjamba said the churches decided to charge N$2 for each 25 litres of water so that they could pay NamWater to keep the tanks filled.Ndjamba said many people in town have refused to pay the N$2 for the water, preferring instead to walk to a broken NamWater pipe that supplies water to the Road Construction Co.(RCC), which is building a paved road between Opuwo and Omakange.There are three breaks in this large pipe and water sprays into the fields 24 hours a day.People come to the pipe and fill their water jugs to carry back to their homes.Some use donkeys to transport the water.”We do this after school every day,” said De Velliers Tjuumbwa, 16, who guided his donkey two kilometres each way, carrying two 25-litre jugs.A NamWater worker said it was the responsibility of the RCC to fix the broken pipe to reduce the waste of water to their site.”They pay from a meter at the NamWater site,” he said.The water is treated at NamWater before it enters the pipe, he said.It was impossible to estimate the thousands of litres that are lost every day through the three breaks.”I was never in my lifetime in Opuwo in a situation to buy water to live,” she said.Opuwo has had no water for five months.But hope is in sight.NamWater and the Town Council have agreed to allow NamWater to manage water provision from Friday.”We signed an agreement on Tuesday that takes effect next Friday,” Opuwo Town Clerk Libertus Mbaumba told The Namibian on Thursday.As a result, NamWater has agreed to turn on the taps to allow residents to receive water.The town’s problem with pipes that are blocked by heavy deposits of lime still has to be addressed, however.Mayor Yaurikua Cornelius Kakuva dismissed the possibility that the ruling party, Swapo, was using his failure to eliminate him as a leader in the community.”I don’t think so, although there might be some individual people who want us to fail,” he said.All businesses in town are affected by the water shutdown.Edward Liang, who runs the China Jiansun Construction Co.in Opuwo, has a contract to build 50 homes for First National Bank (FNB).”I have stopped construction after 26 homes because there can be no water in these homes,” Liang said.He also struggles every day to find water for mixing concrete.”The bank and the people want their houses but they can’t get them because there is no water,” he said.Three men, sitting in the shade of their hut outside the town, worried about the cutting off of water.Simeon Jason said, “We are in the dark.We do not know whether we will get water or not in Opuwo.”Uapota Nangumba told The Namibian that a church in the town is providing water for the community but this will be expensive for poor, unemployed people.The pastors of 10 churches in town gathered recently to try to solve part of the problem.The move was led by Pastor Petersen Gideon of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in town.Gideon approached the embassies of the US, UK and Finland to seek help.Kapitango Ndjamba, assistant to Pastor Gideon, said a Seventh Day Adventist church group provided US$2 000 and the UK Embassy donated five water tanks and the trucks to deliver them to town.The churches used the money to build supports for the tanks, fences, taps and locks and to hire people to manage the tanks.In addition, the 10 churches donated N$50 each to help pay for the first filling of water at each tank.Ndjamba said the churches decided to charge N$2 for each 25 litres of water so that they could pay NamWater to keep the tanks filled.Ndjamba said many people in town have refused to pay the N$2 for the water, preferring instead to walk to a broken NamWater pipe that supplies water to the Road Construction Co.(RCC), which is building a paved road between Opuwo and Omakange.There are three breaks in this large pipe and water sprays into the fields 24 hours a day.People come to the pipe and fill their water jugs to carry back to their homes.Some use donkeys to transport the water.”We do this after school every day,” said De Velliers Tjuumbwa, 16, who guided his donkey two kilometres each way, carrying two 25-litre jugs.A NamWater worker said it was the responsibility of the RCC to fix the broken pipe to reduce the waste of water to their site.”They pay from a meter at the NamWater site,” he said.The water is treated at NamWater before it enters the pipe, he said.It was impossible to estimate the thousands of litres that are lost every day through the three breaks.