Vandalism, theft hamper hepatitis campaign

JANA-MARI SMITH

The City of Windhoek is worried about vandalism and theft of sanitation infrastructure which is hampering efforts to contain the hepatitis E outbreak in Windhoek’s informal settlements. More than half of the repaired toilets have already been vandalised.

The City has spent close to N$1 million on repairing and upgrading water and sanitation facilities in the informal settlements with a view to curbing the spread of the disease.

The municipality also warns that people should not fish or swim in, or use water from, the Goreangab Dam, which has been identified as a source of hepatitis E infection.

It plans to fence the dam in the next financial year to keep people out.

City spokesperson Scheifert Shigwedha says vandalism is a major challenge.

“Almost 50% of repaired toilets are already vandalised,” he said.

Although the municipality has already spent N$979 000 on improving sanitation in affected areas, it needs more money to meet the demand there.

In February, the City of Windhoek announced that its hepatitis E emergency response plan needed N$32 million in order to extend municipal services to the affected areas. N$17 million was set aside for that in this year’s budget.

Fixed and broken

Shigwedha told Namibian Sun this week that the municipality had repaired about 380 toilets since the hepatitis outbreak was identified last year, but that 190 have been vandalised since then.

He said each of the toilets is used by almost 50 people, some of whom have taken ownership to ensure they are cleaned, but their efforts are complicated by vandals.

Meanwhile, the City has identified dozens of sites for the construction of new toilets.

Fifteen of these sites are in the Otjomuise area, 23 in Okuryangava, five in Samora Machel constituency and 23 in the Moses Garoëb constituency.

Shigwedha said 16 new flush toilets and four chemical toilets have been installed and 200 more are planned for the 2018/19 financial year.

The City expressed concern about vandalism and lack of maintenance of these facilities in February already.

“This results in constant blockages and high maintenance costs, as well as vandalism due to lack of ownership and sense of responsibility; as it has seemingly proven difficult for community members to maintain facilities that are used by many people, most of whom are not from the area.”

In early July, health minister Bernard Haufiku also pointed out that vandalism was a significant obstacle in efforts to halt the spread of the disease.

He said at the time that 1 867 suspected hepatitis cases had been reported in nine regions, including 147 confirmed cases and 17 reported deaths.

By 21 August, the number of suspected cases had risen to 3 009, the confirmed cases to 462 and deaths to 24.

To date, seven kilometres of water pipelines have been installed by the City, and 100% of smaller networks were completed, Shigwedha said.

Ten riverbeds have been cleared and decontaminated since February. Besides the national clean-up campaign in May, two local clean-ups were carried out and more are planned, including one for September.

In order to ensure food safety, 48 informal vendors have been inspected in affected areas.

City health officials have collected 260 water samples for testing and continue regular weekly sampling to identify contaminated water sources.

Besides Goreangab Dam, all water streams in the city are also unsafe.