By:Mathias Hangala, Loise Shiimi and Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
A community member of Havana who built a pit latrine for herself and her neighbours has invoked the wrath of the City of Windhoek, resulting in them sending a team to demolish the toilet facility as it was built with bricks last week.
The action of the city management got the Samora Machel Constituency Councilor Nestor Kalola disagrees with the the local authority’s approach.
In the interview with Eagle FM, Kalola questioned why the City bosses didn’t build toilets for the residents to avoid them using riverbeds.
At least 22.6% of the urban areas’ population, including Windhoek, use riverbeds as toilets, with about 43% of households countrywide having no toilet facilities and use bush, riverbeds, and fields.
“I only heard that residents should contribute a certain amount to building their toilets and those toilets should be at least in the open area but it wasn’t clarified that they should construct their toilets with brick or zinc,” Kalolasaid.
The Councillor has confirmed the incident, saying that the pit latrine in question was not even a big one.The owner didn’t install it for herself only, but to cater to everyone in the neighbourhood as the people often use the riverbeds to relieve themselves, Kalola indicated.
Tressia Mungungu, aresident of Havana, said she built a pit latrine to serve herself and the community, but to her surprise on Thursday she received a call from an unknown person who claimed to be a City Police staff, who demanded that shedismantlesthe toilet as it is built with bricks instead of zinc on the municipal ground.
“I replied by saying please bear with me so that I approach the municipality because I used a lot of money to built a brick toilet as I did not know that it is wrong. Please have mercy on me for that toilet to be the last one because that toilet will serve all these households here. I assisted them [residents] really,” Mungungusaid.
It is for this reason that she brought this situation to the attention of the Samora Machel Constituency Councillor Nestor Kalola who assured her that he will engage the City of Windhoek officials, but the toilet was demolished on Friday morning.
Mungungu narrated that she built the inside to form a barricade after there was a break-in where thieves cut the zincs on the side to force entry on the 16th of June 2023 where 6 shots were fired.
She said the case was registered with the police but no arrest has been made yet.
“The municipality is making us suffer since there are no toilets here, there is no water. One has to carry water on the head but when we undertake a good project, they just want the toilets to be built with zinc,”she said.
She added that she did not know that it is wrong to use bricks. “They were just supposed to warn me that I must not do it again,” she added.
Mungungu further demanded that the officials responsible for this must come back and apologise to her because she used a lot of money to build the toilet.
According to her, she used N$1,350 for bricks, N$3,000 for diesel for the generator, N$1,800 for the door, N$700 for the toilet seat, and N$1,500for labour.
Nande Mikael who witnessed the entire ordeal said that City Police officials appeared at the place around 10h00 and demanded to speak to see the owner of the place.
Mikael said he suggested they engage Mungungu telephonically, but they said they do not have time to speak on the phone at all and went on demolishing the pit latrine.
They further indicated that they will come back to destroy the bricks which are barricading the inside.
Councilor Kalola who differs from the City Police approach stated that it was safe for the residents to use pit toilets instead of going to the riverbeds because every day there are criminal cases reported because of riverbeds utilisation as toilets.
“I understand residents are there illegally. However, why don’t they demolish all the buildings in the informal settlement then? Why does it need to be a communal pit latrine,” he stated.
Kalola urged leadership to look at the livelihood of the people.
He acknowledged that the place is not yet formalised but that the City leadership needs to plan first and inform people that at this certain point no one should build anything and educate the on the material to be used to build.
He said he will call a meeting this week with the other leaders, including the Chairperson of the Management Committeeand the Mayor, to discuss this matter and for them to at least educate the community about what kind of toilets they should built.
On the 22nd of April 2023 the City of Windhoek, in partnership with United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), hosted the celebrations for the Open Defecation-Free Status of Samora Machel and Moses //Garoeb constituencies. Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na
Councillor Clashes With City Of Windhoek, As Municipality Demolishes Community Pit Latrine
