Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Vandalism and service interruptions a headache for Keetmanshoop

Home National Vandalism and service interruptions a headache for Keetmanshoop

Matheus Hamutenya

Keetmanshoop-While residents of the informal area of Keetmanshoop are crying for basic services to be brought closer to them, all of the municipality’s efforts to do this seem in vain.

This is so because despite the municipality’s efforts to bring potable water and ablution facilities to the reception area, where most informal settlers at the town reside are constantly vandalised, leaving residents without the needed service, while the municipality is forced to devise solutions to render these services.
Vandalism at the area is so bad that currently none of the eight public flush toilets are usable, while the only tap residents can get water from, is broken, as residents do not need to use their water cards anymore.

But while residents enjoy free water from the broken tap, the municipality has to get funds to repair the taps, to not only stop the water wastage but to ensure that each resident pays for the services they use.

Keetmanshoop Municipality spokeswoman officer Dawn Kruger told New Era that providing basic services to residents at the reception area has been a big headache for the municipality, saying nothing seems to work to ensure the residents have access to sanitation and water services.

She said everything the municipality sets up to benefit the community ends up being vandalised, often by the same residents who require these services, and that the municipality has now almost run out of ideas on how to solve these problems.

“It is very difficult. We have to look at alternative ways to provide basic services to these people on unserviced land. If you bring public taps and toilets, they are vandalised and it doesn’t matter how many times you repair them, they are still vandalised,” she said.

She confirmed that the toilets built in 2015 are not usable anymore, as they were damaged beyond repair, and the municipality is considering demolishing them. She added that the municipality was looking at short- and long-term solutions to the vandalism problem in that area, but they have no solution in sight as yet.

“It is a very big problem. We do not know what to do anymore, but we are working on possible permanent short- and long-term solutions,” she said.

Some of the residents New Era spoke to were of the opinion that setting up public taps and toilets will always create problems, as no one feels responsible to take care of the facilities.

“We want water and toilets, but as you can see public toilets will not work. Some people do not know how to take care of things. Some break it on purpose because they feel it is not their property. In the end the community suffers,” said Amalia Ndeumona.