OTJEKUA – Residents of Otjekua, a village in the Ruacana constituency, affected by drought for the second year in a row say their livestock losses have increased significantly and their circumstances have taken a turn for the worst this year.
They further claim their predicament has worsened progressively over the past two years, reducing them to beggars. Residents of Otjekua, most of them subsistence farmers, say for the past two years they did not receive enough rainfall, but their herds of cattle had carried them through until this year. “This year it is worse, our cattle died like nothing. We were forced to sell them at cheap prices, because they have nothing to eat and now we are not even receiving enough drought relief assistance from the government,” lamented one of the residents, who is also a subsistence farmer. The village is situated some 30km outside Ruacana in the Omusati Region. According to the headman Uazamo Tjiharuka the government tried its best to give the little it could, although the assistance is barely enough for them. “Most of the homes here are overcrowded with a maximum of up to 30 people in one house and you only receive six bags of maize that you will finish within a week or two,” said the headman, who is also their spokesman.
Otjekua is populated mainly by Ovatjimba people and they say for the past three months they have not received any drought relief rations. Now they are pleading with the government to increase the number of maize meal bags to the households in the village, just so that they can help them reach the next round of food distribution. “So far the food distribution from our constituency councillor is good, but we know food is always finished at the office the same day it arrives. So, even if you go there after a week reporting that your food is finished and the children have nothing to eat you will not find anything at all. Which clearly shows that we are not receiving enough food,” he said.
Ruacana constituency councillor Absta Iipinge urged people to report cases of malnutrition if there are any, saying that people must not die from hunger as stated expressly by President Hifikepunye Pohamba early this year. Iipinge said the distribution of food is not proceeding as planned, because the drought relief food policy stipulates every person should get food every month, but the villagers last received their rations in June, mainly “because the food is not enough,” he said.
Iipinge noted that the main warehouse in the region is also empty. “The food distribution is very slow and if this continues like this we are not going to respond on time to the call by the president that no one should die because of hunger,” said Iipinge. Meanwhile, Otjekua residents also called on the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration to visit their village, because 180 elders and children are without national identification documents and birth certificates, although they have already been registered by their leaders. They said Outapi is situated too far away from their village and not everyone can afford to go there, especially when most people are unemployed and poverty stricken.
By Loide Jason