Keetmanshoop
Efforts by the Keetmanshoop Municipality to improve sanitation for people waiting to be allocated serviced plots appear to have been in vain.
About 240 households were moved from Tseiblaagte’s Extension 5 to Ileni informal settlement so that the area could be serviced and residents then be relocated to their plots once the electricity, water and sewerage connections were completed.
In a move to address sanitation problems at the new temporary plots availed to households, the municipality built public flushing toilets and set up public taps for residents to get water free of charge.
This has however not worked well as the municipality is now forced to fork out more and more to renovate the public toilets and taps as they are constantly being vandalised by residents.
The municipality is also being faced with a challenge to control water usage at the public taps as it has allegedly become a trend that people from other locations go and fetch water for free to avoid paying for water.
The eight toilets built this year are barely used by residents because they are very dirty and blocked most of the time and people can still be seen disappearing into nearby bushes when nature calls.
Visiting the area New Era established most of the toilets are no longer in use and people have started to make use of the open space outside the toilets as faeces could be seen around the toilets.
A resident who requested anonymity said she never uses the toilets because of their filthy condition, and she suggests it would have been best to build toilets for each household as public toilets are difficult to control and some people don’t know how to use public toilets and keep them clean.
“Some people even do their business on the floor,” she said.
The municipality spokesperson Dawn Kruger indicated plans are in the pipeline to ensure each household pays for its water usage and sewerage services by putting up a prepaid water system.
“Prepaid systems will be put in place so that each household can pay for usage of water and other services,” she said without shedding more light on when these changes would be effected.
With regard to the toilets she explained the municipality has no choice but to keep them in a state of use until a permanent solution is found.