Onamafila
Fourteen villagers from Onamafila village in Okongo were rushed to Okongo district hospital where they had to be hospitalised after they drank a traditional beer called otombo (tombo).
The brew was apparently contaminated by water stored in a container which displayed a hazard sign and a notice that it shouldn’t be used for storing water for drinking purposes.
According to information availed to New Era the plastic container previously contained a harzadous product – but it was not properly washed by a woman who brewed the tombo to sell to villagers. The result was that some men, women and four children were rushed to hospital on Sunday night and Monday morning. The children had drank water from the container.
Eyewitnesses said the new cuca shop opened last Thursday and the first tombo brewed at the shop was sold to villagers on Sunday afternoon.
Tombo is a home-brewed traditional beer which contains 3.5 to 5.9 percent alcohol and villagers usually drink it when socialising and even to fill up their stomachs.
Historically, tombo has been very popular with the urban poor.
According to some of the victims that spoke to New Era on condition of anonymity they drank the contaminated brew from one oversized jug that was passed around a group of villagers who took turns to sip from the jug.
“Just after 10 minutes I started getting weaker and weaker, then I began to vomit and later I fainted, from there I found myself in the hospital bed,” said one villager.
But the owner of the cuca shop Helena Simon Hidiwakusha who was crying during the interview said she “only used the new container that was brought by my boyfriend from Mariental to store water”.
“I took the container and used it to go and fetch water that I poured in the bucket of tombo, I did not use soap to clean it hence I suspect that the container is problematic here,” the tearful mother narrated while breastfeeding her three-month-old son.
New Era saw the container used by Hidiwakusha for water and it had written on it: ‘Do not use for water.’ The container was confiscated by health inspectors along with her bucket of tombo.
When New Era arrived at the place residents said the cuca shop was closed since Sunday .
Hidiwakusha made 25 litres of tombo last week on Thursday which she sold to residents of her village. Tensions erupted at the village because people started pointing fingers at the new mother accusing her of intentionally poisoning them.
However an environmental health practitioner and a police officer as well as the Okongo constituency councillor urged the communitynot to point fingers at Hidiwakusha because she did not know that the container she used to fetch the water used for the brewing of tombo was contaminated. The health inspector who drove to the place confirmed that all 14 people were admitted to the same hospital for two to three days .
“All I can say is people, learn how to read and please familiarise yourself with hazardous signs in order to avoid this type of incident. We are lucky that no human lives were lost,” she told the villagers.
“People must stop buying such imported containers as they are hazardous to humans, animals and the entire environment. I also advise you to read everything that you are buying, check the hazardous sign, they are unique,” she said.
Residents of the village said many empty containers that previously contained hazardous chemicals are being bartered in exchange for goats, chickens and mahangu by villagers who use the containers to brew tombo.