WINDHOEK – Human/wildlife conflict (HWC) remains a major challenge, with specifically crocodiles and hippos relentlessly attacking and killing people in Kavango and Zambezi regions when villagers draw water, swim or catch fish for relish in the river.
Recently, there have been incidents of crocodile and hippo attacks on humans, where several inhabitants lost their lives while engaging in subsistence fishing, swimming or fetching water for domestic use, as they do not have water taps.
On several occasions, human remains are never found in the river, as the communities together with the police often have to call off such searches.
The Director of Regional Services and Parks Management in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Colgar Sikopo, reiterated that HWC remains a challenge, because such animals live in the water and people should always be wary.
Sikopo says people need to be vigilant at all times when using the river.
With the recent incident in Kavango West, where two women narrowly escaped death after a hippo rammed their canoe, he described the event as unfortunate.
“This specific incident in western Kavango is one of those unfortunate incidences. These people were crossing the river at night into Angola. They might not have seen that there are hippos in the area because it was dark,” he explained.
After the hippo rammed the canoe, it reportedly went after one woman whom it mauled. Fortunately, both women managed to swim to safety and she is now receiving treatment at Rundu hospital.
Sikopo said there could be several hippo herds along the Kavango River.
When asked if there is no way that problem animals such as crocodiles and hippos can be harvested and possibly the hippo meat fed to locals, Sikopo said, “It is not that the animals are too many in numbers, but the issue that they live there.”
He also said the attacks of such nature are not too numerous in the Zambezi Region compared to those being reported in Kavango West.
Sikopo, however, recalled an incident in Zambezi last week, where a 65-year-old woman was caught and killed by a crocodile while cutting reeds at Kabulabula.
“She was in the middle of the river cutting reeds and it was unfortunate that she got attacked and killed,” he noted.
He urged people to at least use boats or canoes while doing activities such as cutting reeds, fishing or fetching water from the river.
“These crocodiles and hippos live in the river. So people must be vigilant. Some of these incidents emanate from children swimming in rivers. We had an incident of a two-year-old caught and killed by a crocodile. Whenever we have to collect any resources from the river, then we should do it in the safest manner possible and move away from the banks of the river,” he cautioned.