Katima flood-affected residents face eviction from relocation camps

Some of the flood-affected residents at Katima Mulilo say they do not have houses to go back to as the council is busy evicting them from the relocation camps. The Katima Mulilo Town Council in March temporarily relocated families to the Ngweze Community Hall after their houses were flooded and damaged as a result of heavy rains experienced since January. However, now that the rainy season has passed, the Katima Mulilo Town Council has started moving these families back to their houses. The council has given the residents until Friday to pack up and be taken back. One of the relocated resident, Alice Sishango, told The Namibian on Thursday that she does not know where to go because her house was completely damaged. She said she cannot afford to rebuild her house due to lack of funds. “The town council officials said they are going to take all the tents, cut water and electricity if we refuse to move by tomorrow. I asked for more time to see what I can do but they refused. I don’t know why we are being treated like this, they know our houses were damaged and relocated us. So where do they expect us to go now? Guess, we are only good enough when it comes to voting,” she said. Another relocated resident, Ngweze Zambwe, says she too does not have a house to go back to and requested for a tent to use temporarily at her plot. She, however, adds that her request was denied. “These people came to visit us with minister of urban and rural development James Sankwasa and promised us when we go back they will provide us with building materials, blankets and matresses. However, today they are just taking us back with nothing to nothing. President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah must help us because the regional leaders are treating us as if we are not human,” she says. Katima Mulilo Town Council chief of fire, disaster and risk management Cornelius Matomola told The Namibian on Friday that they are moving these families back to their homes because their homesteads are now habitibal. He added that they were supposed to do this in May already when they received the directive from the regional council. “We also did not promise them any form of building materials whatsoever. We will only supply tents for three months to those whose house are completely damaged and are building them. We also have to rehabilitate the community hall and use it for its intented purpose,” he said. EVICTION NOTICE … The Katima Mulilo Town Council has given flood affected-residents until Friday to pack up and be taken back to their houses as the rainy season has passed and they can no longer be accommodated at the Ngweze Community Hall. Photo: Lugeretzia Kooper The post Katima flood-affected residents face eviction from relocation camps appeared first on The Namibian .