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THE Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) is suing the Otavi Municipality for failing to provide adequate water and clean public toilet facilities to residents. LAC Director Norman Tjombe said the court application will be finalised during this month and will be filed with the courts in January 2010. “All Namibians should have access to fair public services, the right to proper housing and the right to safe living conditions. This is really about fundamental freedoms – the right to dignity, the right to safety and security and the right to non-discrimination based on socio-economic status,” said Tjombe. Namibian Sun reported last week about the repulsive state of the public toilets in Otavi’s Blikkiesdorp location and how residents, adults and their children, are all forced to relieve themselves in the bushes and how they are exposed to health and physical dangers.

The LAC said it has held consultations with Otavi residents throughout the year and has also seen the deplorable state of the community toilets. “Water in the toilets, built to service the more than 4 000 residents, has been turned off. Instead, people have used the entrance and surrounding area of the toilets to relieve themselves, leaving a pool of human waste surrounding the area,” the LAC said. The LAC also spoke to residents who confirmed that the sanitisation situation at the village gets worse during the rainy season when rubbish flows into their yards with the water, exposing them to diseases like diarrhoea, malaria and cholera. The LAC said it is among a growing number of organisations around the world who are urging the international community to recognise that access to better sanitisation is a fundamental human need and, therefore, a basic human right

In November 2007, the Ombudsman’s Office carried out an investigation on the health hazard conditions in and around the toilets at the informal settlement in Otavi. A report was then submitted to the Ministry of Regional and Local Government and Housing, the regional health directorate in Otjiwarongo and the Otavi village council. In 2008, a reassessment was done by the team of the Ombudsman and it was found that the obligation of the village council was still not fulfilled.