Watershed case set for July 29

THE High Court will on July 29 hear the first part of a historic case in which destitute residents of Windhoek’s Goreangab want the State to be compelled to provide free water and sanitation to poor people.

A few dozen residents of the poor settlement, in the outskirts of the capital, on Friday marched about 10 kilometres to the court to file their revolutionary human rights lawsuit against the Windhoek municipality, Government and NamWater. The test case, which was lodged with the help of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) and the first of its kind in the history of Namibia, could have broad ramifications for the distribution of State resources.”We are asking the court to stop the municipality’s practice of summarily terminating water supply to the poor, and to declare unconstitutional the eviction of poor people from their houses,” LAC Director, Norman Tjombe, said.The Goreangab residents also want the Municipality to be directed to construct toilet facilities at their houses.Tjombe stated that the demand for the reconnection of water and the erection of toilets is urgent hence it will come to the High Court on July 29, while the rest of the case will be heard on a date yet to be set.”We want the reconnection of water and the provision of toilet facilities to be done as soon as possible, but it should be within three months, the lawyer stressed.Other demands the poor residents set out in their case against the Windhoek municipality are to declare unconstitutional the practice of charging fees for un-rendered services and the Municipality’s assessment rates on improved value in respect of properties at Goreangab.In her affidavit one of the residents, a wheelchair-bound, unemployed woman Susana Nowases gave a moving insight into the devastating poverty among the Goreangab community.”As the poverty levels are high in Goreangab settlement, people enter into commercial sex work out of desperation to generate income for them and their families,” Nowases stated.After filing their lawsuit in the High Court, the residents – who waved placards and chanted: “we want water”- marched onto the City Council head office where they delivered a copy of their court paper to the mayor.The lawsuit comes years after the Windhoek City Council shut down the water supply and halted several other services.More than 90 per cent of the Goreangab community, which apparently numbers between 12 000 to 15 000 households, have reportedly accumulated debts of between N$6 000 and N$36 000 per consumer since 1996.The test case, which was lodged with the help of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) and the first of its kind in the history of Namibia, could have broad ramifications for the distribution of State resources.”We are asking the court to stop the municipality’s practice of summarily terminating water supply to the poor, and to declare unconstitutional the eviction of poor people from their houses,” LAC Director, Norman Tjombe, said.The Goreangab residents also want the Municipality to be directed to construct toilet facilities at their houses.Tjombe stated that the demand for the reconnection of water and the erection of toilets is urgent hence it will come to the High Court on July 29, while the rest of the case will be heard on a date yet to be set.”We want the reconnection of water and the provision of toilet facilities to be done as soon as possible, but it should be within three months, the lawyer stressed.Other demands the poor residents set out in their case against the Windhoek municipality are to declare unconstitutional the practice of charging fees for un-rendered services and the Municipality’s assessment rates on improved value in respect of properties at Goreangab.In her affidavit one of the residents, a wheelchair-bound, unemployed woman Susana Nowases gave a moving insight into the devastating poverty among the Goreangab community.”As the poverty levels are high in Goreangab settlement, people enter into commercial sex work out of desperation to generate income for them and their families,” Nowases stated.After filing their lawsuit in the High Court, the residents – who waved placards and chanted: “we want water”- marched onto the City Council head office where they delivered a copy of their court paper to the mayor.The lawsuit comes years after the Windhoek City Council shut down the water supply and halted several other services.More than 90 per cent of the Goreangab community, which apparently numbers between 12 000 to 15 000 households, have reportedly accumulated debts of between N$6 000 and N$36 000 per consumer since 1996.