KATIMA MULILO – Due to the obsolete sewer system which was constructed before independence, Katima Mulilo town council chief executive officer Rafael Liswaniso says the town’s underground water has become contaminated as the aged sewer pipes leak.
Speaking during a parliamentary standing committee hearing on public accounts on Monday, Liswaniso told MPs that the sewer ponds were built in 1989 for a population of just about 8 000 residents.
“We now have 46 000 residents ,which is six times the intended population. We have a sewer system here that is going to burst soon. It has become a disaster. If you drive around Katima, you find sewer ponds. We have been asking central government to address this crisis bit by bit since 2017.
He cited old locations at the town such as Boma and Newlook, which are suffering mostly from recurring overspills in houses as they were built in the 1980s and before that.
“They were using holdback pipes. All those pipes have turned into sand. Meaning if you flush the toilet in Katima – you see water standing in your toilet and it start sgoing down…don’t think that water goes into a sewer, it is sinking into the soil. So because our water table is very low here, most of our water is contaminated,” he said.
The pump station and the network is blocked, hence the town is sitting with a serious situation.
Liswaniso said he has been calling for government intervention on the crisis since 2017, but nothing has happened.
“Whoever (government official) comes here, we preach to them about it. In 2017, it was estimated to cost about N$257 million when I presented this problem to honourable Sophia Shaningwa [then minister of rural and urban development] to arrest the situation,” he stated.
The estimated cost to address this situation is now around N$600 million.
He went on: “If we don’t address it now and you hear Katima is unable to do anything with sewer – know that it’s not of our making. We are trying hard but we are not getting the support we need. We don’t want to stop. But there will be a time we won’t be able because we don’t have financial means.”
Further, he told parliamentarians that when the nation hears people in Katima Mulilo complaining about spillovers, it is because sewer pumps have ceased to work, saying the town council is addressing this piecemeal.
“When a pipe bursts, you connect another pipe there. It will not be straight as it was and that becomes a problem. It gets blocked and starts spilling into houses. When we are fixing those pipes, those people are facing reality.”
He said since central government has been reluctant to solve the town’s old sewer system, the town council will not connect any new developments to that sewer line.
“We have requested funding from KfW and government said no no no…we will address that but nothing has been done. They are building a Unam campus. We have refused to connect any development in Katima to this sewer. We can’t connect anyone. If you start building houses in Katima- just ensure you find your own sewer system because we can’t connect you,” he stated.
To mitigate the risks, council has re-routed the sewer line the CBD [central business district] to pump 7 which is working 24/7, as it has two motors. However, Liswaniso said these motors always break down every two to three months and now council needs to buy new ones. One motor costs about N$700 000.
The MPs promised to make a follow up with the relevant officials to address the crisis.