Ongwediva
Uuvudhiya Constituency Councillor Amutenya gwa Ndahafa says the constituency is in dire need of basic services and infrastructure, including health and police services and road infrastructure.
In a recent interview with New Era he said it has been 22 years since a promise was made to construct a clinic in the constituency but until now nothing has materialised.
He said people in the constituency travel long distances to access health care, adding that there are cases when community members lost their lives but some deaths could have been prevented if there was a clinic in the area.
“The people are tired. They are suffering. Just imagine a person travelling up to 80 kilometres to go and come back from the nearest health facility. There are so many incidents of snakebite in my area, but one has to travel all those kilometres to get medical treatment,” lamented the Uuvudhiya councillor.
“The plan was to establish clinics at Okaku, Onamutai, Ekamba and Onaushe and this was stated in NDP1, NDP2 and NDP3. This plan comes from as far as 1994 already. Three clinics are up and running, except Onalushe clinic,” he said.
He says that one of the requirements to build a clinic is to have a population of about 8 000 people in a specific area. Onalushe area qualifies as it is at the border of Uuvidhiya and Otamazi constituencies, which are both heavily populated.
A clinic situated at the border would benefit the inhabitants of both Uuvidhiya and Otamazi constituencies.
Apart from there being no clinic, Gwa Ndahafa said most criminal activities in the constituency go unreported as there is no police station.
He said there was a plan to construct a sub police station at Engombe, which is the main centre of the constituency, but this too has yet to materialise.
In both cases the constituency office, through traditional authorities in the area, provided land for the projects, including places to construct accommodation for staff, but that did not help either.
To make matters worse, the inhabitants of Uuvudhiya do not have access to telecommunications, as there is no network coverage. This service too was promised in 1994 but up until now the community is yet to see this become a reality.
“Year-in, year-out MTC promises to erect a network tower but they never do. Even last year MTC people came here looking at the place where they supposedly want to erect the tower but they never returned,” said the councilor.
“These people helped a lot during the war of liberation, but so many years down the line they have not tasted the fruits of independence,” he said.
He further called upon officials tasked by the head of state to put bitumen surfaces on 1 480 kilometres of Namibian roads to ensure that some roads in Uuvudhiya, especially Omatuku-Onkani-Ondjungulume road, Engombe-Ompundja-Ekangolyambaumbala and the road between Onambuku Primary School and John Nankudhu Centre are attended to.