Editorial: When the rain harms

Each year many Namibians look up to the sky and, in a demonstration of unity that is rare and uplifting, unite in the collective hope for rain.

And each year, if the weather cooperates and the heat waves make way for buckets of water lashing down and the brown earth suddenly sprouts green everywhere, we hear stories of families whose lives are not bettered, but battered by the rain.

While farmers sigh with relief, and urban dwellers in brick houses enjoy the cool and wet weather, informal settlement residents face an uphill battle as the water sweeps away roofs and roads, and their homes are at risk of being ripped away by flash floods. Worse, people are at risk of drowning.

Countless studies of the hazards faced by informal settlement residents point to weather as a contributor to the misery many who live in makeshift homes in informal settlements face.

In dry, hot weather, families are forced into overheated living conditions. In winter, the icy weather can lead to blazes as families try to stay warm in cold shacks.

And in the rainy season, rising rivers threaten the lives, homes and belongings of those who already have so little.

And as happens too often in Namibia, we act when it’s too late. Families are forced to move to higher areas after the floods have already come.

Instead of urgently addressing the lack of planned and safe urban areas, local and regional authorities simply move around the puzzle pieces, with families still exposed to unhealthy and unsafe living conditions.