By Surihe Gaomas WINDHOEK Financial constraints continue to hamper progress on doing away with the old Bucket Toilet System, especially in the south of the country. Even though government has made great strides in prioritizing getting rid of the colonially-inherited bucket system, village councils and small local authorities in the south say the process is too slow. Residents of towns and villages such as Stampriet, Tses, Aus, Warmbad, Berseba, KoÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚«s, Kalkfeld and Gibeon, are still using the buckets or, what is commonly known in Afrikaans, “nag emmers.” Voicing her concern over the slow progress, Stampriet Village Secretary, Catherine Haimbodi, informed New Era that since government approved the implementation of changing the bucket toilet system four years ago, nothing much has happened. “The project was approved in 2003/2004 to upgrade the sewerage system, but nothing has taken place because budget constraints make it difficult. Currently, we are still using the bucket toilets, although the project has been approved,” explained Haimbodi. What was to take place at Stampriet was the upgrading of the oxidation ponds and construction of the pump stations. This would ultimately amount to N$11 million in total. However, with the village council only having N$500ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 in its budget coffers, the priority of withdrawing the bucket toilets could only be done in phases. “Budget constraints make it difficult, so government must allocate enough funds and make the bucket toilet problem a first priority. It is really a challenge for us, as these buckets have become a health hazard and a serious problem. We’ve even had cases of diarrhoea and TB,” said Haimbodi, adding that the very same buckets they’ve been trying to get rid of in the first place have for a long time also not been produced by the suppliers. “People are even resorting to the bush,” was another concern. With a population of approximately 3ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 800 residents, mostly pensioners and unemployed, Stampriet, like many of the village towns in the south, needs development in terms of adequate sanitary conditions. Clerk at Aus Settlement, Moses Kukuri, said nothing is happening for the 300-plus residents of Aus. “Our problem is mainly to do with the scarcity of water. What’s more is that those who empty the bucket toilets in the township don’t have protective masks, and the lorry they use is also out of service. We must change to the flush system, and our community also feels they must get the flush system toilets,” explained Kukuri, adding that, as a result, some of these buckets are not emptied for long periods at a time. Some of the residents feel that the bucket toilets are just too filthy and unhygienic for everyone, especially for the children. “The urine runs like soup from a boiling pot,” said a Tses resident in Afrikaans, who was sick and tired of the “stinking toilets.” According to the 2001 Population and Housing Census National Report, over 54 percent of households in Namibia do not have proper toilet facilities and people have instead resorted to relieving themselves in the bush. “More than half of the households in the country have no toilet facilities,” the report reads. Residents in the northern and north-eastern regions, especially in the rural areas, have turned to the bushes due to lack of proper toilet facilities. However, as of last month, government intends to pump N$1-billion into development in the country, making the phasing-out of the bucket toilet system a priority project. Cabinet had decided that a whopping N$800 million would be spent on 31 priority development projects between April this year and March 2010. Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Erastus Negonga, informed New Era that replacement of the inhumane bucket system in southern towns and villages is in fact a top priority for the ministry. Some households have in fact benefited from the process and had received the conventional flush toilets. Negonga has denied claims that this process is moving slowly, saying that it is in fact moving, but it has to be done within the limitations of the budget allocation. He added that since change entails replacing the entire sewerage system and reticulation system – such a process of ridding some towns from the bucket toilets – couldn’t happen overnight. “Its an inherited colonial system that has been there for hundreds of years. So it is not only a matter of throwing out the bucket toilets and replacing them with the flush toilets. We are redesigning the whole sewerage system, constructing pumps and linking them to individual households, so it is quite a costly exercise,” explained Negonga. He revealed that the Ministry has spent N$9 million from the Trust Fund for Regional Development and Equity Provisions to partly replace the bucket system with a waterborne one in Gibeon during the 2005/2006 financial year. An additional N$10 million from the Ministry’s savings in the 2005/06 financial year has been allocated to the Trust Fund for the very same purpose in Gibeon to be carried out during this financial year (2006/2007). Total financial costs for one town are close to N$20 million, and this same amount is planned to be spent at Stampriet which is now next in line for the exercise to be conducted during the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 financial years. With the scarcity of water, especially in the south, Negonga noted that another alternative had been found. “Previously, we used the waterborne system which is more expensive. Now we are looking at the less costly vacuum system which does not use much water,” said Negonga. The construction of sewerage reticulation at Karasburg has been completed, while the first phase of infrastructure development at LÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚¼deritz under a tripartite arrangement by the Ministry, the LÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚¼deritz Town Council and the European Union is progressing well.