Ondangwa mitigates storm-water woes

The Ondangwa town council is mitigating the risks of future flooding, with council employees hard at work cleaning earth channels and culverts.

With the rainy season in full swing, most northern towns experience flooded streets and sidewalks because they either have no storm-water channels, or the existing ones are blocked.

In some instances, entire streets become flooded.

Spokesperson Petrina Shitalangaho told Ewi lyaNooli that the town council started the process in December.

“The cleaning is done through random inspections and reports from residents whose channels are blocked,” she said.

Not a dumping site

Shitalangaho added that some culverts and water channels are used as dumping sites by residents, and as a result, it becomes a problem during the rainy season.

She urged residents to refrain from such practices.

“The water channels were created to channel the flow of water either from houses or high land to low land,” she said.

Shitalangaho added that another challenge experienced is the drainage of water into the sewer system through resident-made openings.

She said this practice places pressure on the sewer system as it was not designed to accommodate such inflow. This subsequently leads to pumps working under pressure and eventually giving in, she explained.

She further said the pumps will not be able to function properly as the water entering the system includes sand and other waste materials.

“They will either start pumping the sewage materials at a slow pace or burn, affecting the whole pumping system. Replacing parts is costly and time-consuming, and inconveniences residents as these pumps are required to run without interruption,” she said.

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