Home is where the hardship is

Nearly one in every four homes in Namibia is a mere shack or kambashu.In urban areas, it is one out of every three, according to the results of the 2019/2021 census mapping, conducted by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) and released yesterday.Only 8.5% of the country’s water supply points are taps. Nearly 36% of sampled households have to get their drinking water from piped water outside.About 43% of households, most of them in rural areas, have no toilet facilities and have to use the bush, riverbeds or fields. In urban areas, more than one in five households are forced to use nature.Meanwhile, more than half of households in Namibia use firewood to cook – nearly 88% in rural areas.Only 18.9% of households in rural areas use electricity from the country’s grid to light their homes. About 62% rely on batteries, lamps, torches or their cellphones to provide light in their homes.KhomasThe NSA interviewed 507 249 households in its survey, most of them (90 834) in the Khomas Region.Of these, more than 40 000 households - or about 44% - live in detached houses. More than 37 000, or 41%, call a shack home.Nearly 52% get their water from public water pipes, while only about 13% have the luxury of taps.Some 47% have private toilets connected to main sewers, while one of every five households have to answer nature&#039;s call outdoors.The majority of households use electricity from the grid (58%) or gas (32%) to cook. Nearly 64% have grid electricity to light their homes, but 16% have to rely on batteries, torches, lamps or cellphones, and 10% on candles.ErongoOf the 41 912 households surveyed in Erongo, about 70% live in detached houses, compared to 18% who have to survive in shacks.Nearly 70% rely on boreholes with or without tanks, while 11% get their water from tankers at service points.More than half have private flush toilets connected to main sewers, compared to one in four households who have to share flush toilets connected to septic main sewers. Nine percent have no toilet facilities.About 80% are connected to the electricity network, but 13% still have to use firewood for cooking.HardapIn the Hardap Region, more than 19 000 households were included in the NSA survey, of which nearly 53% live in detached houses. About 40% live in shacks.More than half depend on boreholes and about 14% get their water from tankers at service points.Around 48% have private flush toilets, but nearly 31% have to resort to the bush, riverbeds or fields.About 28% are dependent on water tankers or public water pipes, while more than half have access to boreholes.This while about 69% are connected to the grid, but 16% use candles as light.OmahekeOf the more than 21 000 households sampled in Omaheke, 51% live in shacks, while 39% have detached houses.More than 80% rely on boreholes for water, and nearly 55% have no toilet facilities.About 69% use firewood to cook, and nearly one out of every three households rely on batteries, lamps, torches, cellphones or candles for light.OmusatiThe NSA interviewed more than 55 000 households in Omusati. Here, only 28% have detached houses, with nearly 54% living in traditional dwellings and 11% in shacks.Most rely on piped water in and outside their homes and about 61% have no toilet facilities.Around 74% use batteries, lamps, torches, cellphones or candles for light, while nearly 86% have only firewood to cook on.Furthermore, most households in Namibia (52.8%) are headed by men. The NSA also found 94 households headed by persons aged 11 and younger.

Home is where the hardship is

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-27

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Home is where the hardship is

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-27

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