WINDHOEK – Residents of Mix informal settlement in Windhoek Rural Constituency continue to bemoan the lack of basic services such as electricity, ablution facilities and the high unemployment rates.
New Era yesterday visited the settlement and spoke to residents of the poverty-stricken settlements who complained about the high unemployment rate and the lack of basic services such as electricity and toilets. “Many people here don’t have jobs, as a result there is high poverty in this community. The youth depend on their parents to give them pocket money to buy cosmetics. People use pit latrines for toilets,” said 48-year old resident, Teofelus Nauyoma.
There are few communal taps and residents make use of water from a riverbed at the settlement to do laundry and household cleaning, explained residents who spoke to New Era.
Nauyoma said there is a need for a school bus to transport school going children to Windhoek because parents have to pay up to N$400 per month for private transport for their children who attend school in Windhoek, about 20 kilometres from the Mix informal settlement.
“We really want to see change in Mix because we have so many challenges,” added Nauyoma, who has been an inhabitant of Mix for the past 17 years.
Further, two health extension workers who spoke to New Era said there was a high burden of Hepatitis E cases at the settlement.
“People draw water from the riverbed to use for household chores and that in itself is enough for diseases to spread,” explained Samuel Paulus, who has worked as a health extension worker at Mix for the past two years.
Paulus and his colleague Johanna Amwaama also said they have observed a high number of defaulters on anti-retroviral medications.
“They told us that they defaulted because they don’t have transport money to go and get their medication in Windhoek,” said Paulus.
There is also a high rate of defaulters on immunisation, said Amwaama. “Many parents don’t take their children for immunisation,” Amwaama noted.