RUNDU – The Calikawo community in the Kavango West region is in dire need of water after their borehole broke down towards the end of September. 

Since then, the villagers have not had a nearby water source for their consumption as well as for their livestock. 

They have thus been travelling long distances to fetch water for their needs, while their livestock have to make an even longer trek to faraway villages for water almost daily.

“We have engaged the authorities since, but they have not attended to us. Some officials have said if we pay them, they will come and sort out our problem. How can we pay them to come and do the job that government employed them to do?” asked one villager, who requested anonymity.

“It’s been a month now that we have struggled without water, and it is costly for us to hire cars to go and fetch water from faraway areas,” he complained.

“When we went to their office in Nkurenkuru, they gave us the number of a ‘private’ technician whom we should pay to do the job faster as the government artisans would take longer. To our surprise, that same technician is also working for rural water supply. This person asked us to pay N$3 000 or three goats,” the affected Calikawo inhabitants stressed.

New Era managed to get hold of Richard Shikongo, the Kavango West regional head in the department of rural water supply and sanitation coordination services, which is decentralised to the regional council.

“Yes, we are aware of the situation at Calikawo. We partly must admit that we failed to assist them on time, but it’s not our wish that they should not be assisted. It’s just some technicalities that we are dealing with which is making us not to attend to them as expected,” he responded.

Shikongo confirmed the allegations that some of his officials requested money from the stranded community. 

“We have heard of the accusations levelled against our staff, which must be taken up. We need to find out if they are true or not. We are not taking it lightly; we are going to deal with it internally,” he said.

Shikongo told this publication that several issues like the lack of personnel, as well as transport, equipment and material woes are hindering service delivery in the Kavango West rural water supply division.

“It’s a new office without all the required structure for us to function effectively. We are having foundational challenges, but for now, we are doing more with less. We have a team that just came back from the field, and we will send them to that area. It is urgent because all the boreholes in that area or radius have issues, and they don’t have nearby alternatives now,” he noted.

“I visited the area on Wednesday, and we had a number of issues with boreholes at villages which are in the surrounding area of Calikawo. We attended to some issues, but the team will now go and try to remedy the situation there,” he promised.

- jmuyamba@nepc.com.na