EENHNANA – At least 200 people of the marginalised San community in the Ombili location of Eenhana are said to be living in abject poverty without housing, water, sanitation. Moreover, over 90 percent of them have identification documents.
Apart from poverty it is also reported that most parents are abusing alcohol, with children suffering the most as their parents or guardians allegedly sell drought relief food to buy alcohol. It is also alleged that because of the lack of parental care and supervision children from this community do not attend school, while the school dropout rate is also very high. Children and the elderly who qualify for the government’s social grant do not have any form of identification documents, including birth certificates, which are required to process social grant payments. Council Support and Administration Officer at Eenhana, Fillemon Haiduwa, said town council officials recently discovered that apart from government drought relief food, the San people living in the Ombili informal settlement are not receiving any humanitarian assistance, unlike those at Ouhalamo settlement which is also within the town boundaries. Haiduwa said the San community at Ouholama receive a lot of donations from the council and the local business community and on top of that, government has also built them houses. According to Haiduwa the town council has started distributing food, pots and other items to the community.
Kemanguluko Daniel who is a resident of Ombili said soon after the town council officials have left, some of the beneficiaries allegedly started selling the items donated to them in order to get money to buy alcohol. The Ombili informal settlement is also in dire need of water and this has forced residents to drink dirty water from a water pond in the location, while those who can afford it buy water from the owner of a privately owned tap which is the only one in the entire settlement. The owner is said to be charging N$2 per 25 litre of water. “That water pond is very dirty, sometimes we find used condoms in it, but we are forced to drink that water because most of the time it is just hard to get N$2 to buy clean water. All we are asking is for the government to give us clean water, toilets and houses, just like our fellow San at Ouholamo,” said the owner of the compound where the San live, who only identified himself as Shamhaulimo.
According to Haiduwa, Ombili is not a residential settlement and has been demarcated as a business zone, adding that the San people will eventually be relocated to an area that has basic facilities. Haiduwa further maintained that councillor Ester Kavela of Eenhana, who is responsible for Ombili, has seen to it that the construction of the school in that area will soon completed and that the school would open in January next year.
By Helvy Shaanika