Samora Machel Constituency Councillor, Nestor Kalola has accused the City of Windhoek (CoW) of lying about the provision of ablution facilities in informal settlements, which has forced residents to construct their own toilets.

Kalola’s allegations follow CoW’s decision last week to demolish a privately-owned toilet at an informal settlement in the constituency, saying CoW has not provided the informal settlements of the Samora Machel Constituency with any ablution facilities and as a result, residents have resorted to constructing their own.

“People are suffering and now that they are trying to build their own toilets to avoid using plastic bags and riverbeds when nature calls … CoW is destroying their toilets… Where are the toilets they built? They must come show us. How does CoW expect the people to survive or are they giving the residents riverbeds as the primary option for sanitation?” he fumed while speaking to Nampa on Tuesday.

Kalola said the constituency’s informal settlements house 80 000 inhabitants and the CoW provides communal water points only. He said the councillor’s office wrote a letter in 2021 requesting basic services such as ablution facilities, more water points and electricity, but nothing has been provided yet.

Meanwhile, CoW spokesperson Harold Akwenye said amongst six constituencies where the largest informal settlements are located, 157 toilets were provided from 2020 to 2022, of which 16 were allocated to Samora Machel, increasing the allocation to 69 public toilets.

“The demolition was done on the basis that there was no peaceful occupation of the toilet that was illegally built on the municipal land, hence the person was distracted from fully completing and taking peaceful occupation of the toilet structure,” he noted.

“The City is planning, subject to availability of resources, to implement an additional 115 toilets over the period 2023-2025 in Samora Machel, which is half of the total allocation planned for the entire informal settlements, of 231 toilets,” Akwenye added.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency