Windhoek
Residents of Gibeon village in the Hardap Region are in urgent need of basic social services, such as an ambulance and decent shopping facilities.
Community activist Nicklaas Dawson, who spoke to New Era last week, says since Independence more than 25 years ago the local residents have had to rely on Mariental for an ambulance. He said this has resulted in many deaths.
“Many women suffer complications at delivery and some pregnant mothers have died due to poor access to maternity services over the years,” the community activist said.
He said there is a need for the village to have its own ambulance to meet the needs of a growing population. Lack of proper health facilities is forcing them to travel long distances to seek medical attention.
“We only have one clinic in the area and there are no permanent doctors. We’ve seen people die because of poor service delivery,” Dawson said.
He says the clinic caters for the whole Gibeon constituency, which has a population of over 5 000 and reiterated the urgent need for the expansion of clinics in the area.
Contacted for comment last week, Ministry of Health and Social Services spokesperson Ester Paulus said the clinic at Gibeon was renovated recently and now has excellent infrastructure, including nurses’ accommodation facilities. “The clinic is staffed with two registered nurses and four enrolled nurses,” Paulus said.
Dawson also complained of the shops in the area, saying that many are poorly-stocked, forcing people to travel 70 km to the nearest town, Mariental, to do their shopping.
He also mentioned that he recently attended a meeting in Mariental where it emerged that the planned multipurpose shopping centre at Gibeon would no longer go ahead as planned.
Gibeon is one of Namibia’s most historically significant towns. It is the home of the Nama clan, the Witboois, and was the scene of a number of bloody skirmishes between the then colonial German rulers and the Nama people.
The village, which has a population of more than 3 000, is situated about 70 kilometres south of Mariental.
According to information made available by the Electoral Commission Namibia, around 4 956 people in the Gibeon constituency voted in the 2004 national assembly election, but in the 2009 presidential election the number declined to 3 669.