OSHAKATI – Rains on Tuesday afternoon exposed serious construction flaws in the N$54-million Oshana Regional Study and Resource Centre that leaked heavily, putting several books and journals at risk of ruin.
The leakage was the latest flaw at the library built six months ago amid much pomp and fanfare. Last year, shortly before handover to government for inauguration the library’s air conditioners were leaking but Nexus, the contractor, hastily rectified this shortcoming.
Since then the situation reportedly stabilised until Tuesday afternoon when water was seen flowing in the resource centre’s library offices, and the bookshelves.
The water that gushed into the building on Tuesday had to be emptied using plastic buckets to prevent the deluge from ruining the library’s electrical equipment and possibly books and journals in the library.
Some staff members had to vacate their offices while they waited for the situation to stabilise. Papers on the notice boards in some offices got wet while some people had to endure pools of water while it rained incessantly.
One of the three sections severely affected, where minor openings and leakage were observed in the roof, is the children’s section where about 50 children were gathered.
Chief Librarian Sam Kasulwa said books and important gadgets are under threat if no action is taken immediately. He said previously the leakage was only observed from the air conditioner.
“This is serious, what if it had rained at night,” questioned Kasulwa.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Education in Oshana Region Immanuel Aipanda, who described the situation as unfortunate, concurred that the contractor was called in to rectify the leaks shortly before the inauguration.
However, at the moment, his office is negotiating with the education head office in Windhoek in partnership with the Ministry of Works and Transport to find an interim solution to seal the roof.
He said in the absence of sealing the roof, then bookshelves and equipment would have to be shifted to non-leaking areas if the rain persists.
“We are in negotiation with the head office to see where we can secure funds to seal the roof,” said Aipanda.
The Executive Director at Nexus, Kelly Nghixulifwa, said following preliminary investigation yesterday, they have ascertained that poor workmanship or material failure are not the root of the problem.
“I was suspecting that it’s either poor workmanship or material failure however so far we have ruled out it is none of the above,” he said.
The site foreman at Nexus Andre Griesel confirmed there are “minor” problems that need to be fixed at the library, such as a toilet that is not flushing, however, he said the leaking roof is not among the problems.
He is adamant the material used was of good quality and that the job was properly done.
“In the meantime I have liaised with the library officials to list down all the problems for immediate rectification,” said Griesel.
According to Griesel, his company is ready to fix the current failures, including those that were done by the sub-contractors in order to retain good company reputation for future tenders.