By Wezi Tjaronda Gobabis Four primary schools in the Omaheke Region are facing critical water shortages, which, if not addressed, may prevent learners from having access to education. Donkerbos, Motsomi, Helena and Eiseb primary schools face serious water shortages and in some cases inhibit the expansion of the curriculum. Director of Education in the Omaheke Region, Dr Theofilus Kamupingene, told New Era last week that Donkerbos was the worst affected. “Due to this factor, a vicious cycle of poverty will remain a permanent feature of this extremely disadvantaged community as learners who complete Grade 4 at that school cannot make it to the senior primary phase to later access secondary education or tertiary education,” he said. He said the water situation at the school, which goes up to Grade 5 and accommodates 200 learners, was not conducive to curriculum expansion and grades addition. “We can get more learners and expand the curriculum to Grade 6 or 7 but not without water,” he said. The Donkerbos community, which comprises mainly the San, has two community boreholes that they also share with the school. Kamupingene said the boreholes break down frequently due to over-usage and also run out of diesel. When the situation is critical, especially at Motsomi Primary School, learners are sent home sometimes for two weeks. Kamupingene partly blamed some communities that did not want to pay for their water usage, putting the whole burden of buying diesel on the school. “They don’t want to pay because they know the school cannot do without water. So the school ends up providing the diesel,” he said According to the Omaheke Regional Profile, over 12 600 households in the region, which represent 15.8 percent, depend directly on borehole water. The profile reveals that problems surrounding water provision related to the affordability of water and diesel to pump it from borehole sources. “The few sources of water that were available were further compromised by the unreliability of the diesel engines, by severely limited storage capacity and in some communities, power failures,” the profile reveals. The region is not well endowed with water resources, with more of the water obtained via deep boreholes. In some constituencies, water is found at depths of over 100 metres.