Mario Siukuta
Since early 2020, the world has experienced a major health and social crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The world has been challenged with a wave of coronavirus infections that have been rising and putting a strain on the health sector of countries worldwide. This outcome has resulted in governments globally implementing regulations and guidelines to control social behaviours and prevent the further spread of the virus.
In Namibia, approximately 156 187 Covid-19 cases have been reported as of date. The country is recovering from a devastating third wave that saw 3 974 deaths per million in early August last year. The third wave saw health facilities become overwhelmed with the number of increasing infections and breadwinners losing their lives daily to the pandemic. With the festivel season over, the country has once again been left vulnerable to a deadly fourth wave. In preparation to combat the inevitable fourth wave, one must start asking whether we are prepared to manage the possible fourth wave.
Given the high population concentrations and economic activities in urban areas, these have primarily become the hotspots of Covid-19 infections. Within urban areas, informal settlements have emerged over the past years due to the lack of affordability of land and housing, weak governance, and several other interrelated factors. These settlements have limited access to essential services such as water and sanitation and lack proper infrastructure such as formal housing and nearby health facilities. With the increase of Covid-19 infections, informal settlements are more prone to the effects of the virus. The impacts of the fourth wave will further exploit the current challenges being experienced within informal settlements.
One of the challenges experienced is the congestion of informal settlements. This living space does not promote social distancing (high-density living) in informal settlements. The rapid increase of infections in the informal settlements only creates a hotspot of infections and a risk to individuals within the informal settlements. By nature, the informal settlement setup does not allow for the recommended gatherings as prescribed in the Covid-19 regulations. Informal settlers live as big extended families, with unclear boundaries between homes in most areas, creating an interlink environment between homes and neighbours, defeating the purpose of reducing the number of gatherings between people as this is not being practiced. The current living conditions in these areas defeat all government interventions and control measures to control the virus. As most people brace themselves for the fourth wave, they are told to continuously observe health protocols, wash their hands, and self-isolate. However, basic water is in short supply in informal settlements where it is urgently needed. To add to that, health facilities are located far away from the community, leading to more people going untreated and some even losing their lives due to the distance of health facilities around them. Earlier waves of Covid directly impacted and deteriorated the economic conditions of the people in the country. Companies closed, people lost their jobs, and Covid placed an already vulnerable population under even greater financial pressure. This led to households finding it difficult even to meet their essential living cost and food needs. Informal settlements are highly vulnerable to the immediate and long-term economic shock that Covid-19 has created.
The Covid-19 pandemic has represented a turning point in the way things were done or are still being done worldwide and across sectors. In Namibia, the significant share of urban growth is informal, with this number set to continue growing heading into the future. President Hage Geingob has made a bold promise to eradicate informal settlements in the country and has declared informal settlements a humanitarian crisis. Besides the informal settlements having already been reported as a humanitarian issue, the Covid-19 virus further exposed this crisis. With the pandemic having served as a turning point, Namibia needs to start reflecting on informal settlement upgrading approaches.
The current upgrading approaches are no longer sufficient. A total transformation of these areas is required and needed. The vision of sustainable cities needs to be reconceptualised to incorporate lessons learnt from the pandemic and embed into entrenched approaches that perpetuate urban poverty and vulnerability in light of a Covid-19 world. The pandemic provided a unique opportunity to question the contemporary issues concerned with informal settlements and shifting the current paradigm as an issue that needs to happen now and not when Covid is over.