Ohangwena family shares tent as floods wreak havoc

A short distance from the Omafo-Ongenga road, Jona Hangula (39) and his family sit under a thorn tree.

Next to them is a tent, which he says has been housing them for the past two weeks after they had to abandon their house at Ouhongo village at Engela in the Ohangwena region.

The Hangula family is part of a group of families in the region who have been displaced due to rising floodwaters.

Hangula yesterday told The Namibian his house and mahangu field are both submerged in water.

‘MY CHICKEN ALSO DROWNED’

“We have nowhere to go. Our house is under water and our crops are gone. My chicken also drowned in the floods,” he said.

Hangula said the damage to his house has not only left him and his family homeless, but also exposed them to snakes as they have to cross a stream every morning to go to their houses.

He says his family desperately needs help. “We need tents, food, mosquito nets, blankets and mattresses. We also need toilets, because we relieve ourselves in an open space. We also bath in the oshana,” he said.

Hangula said mosquitoes bite them at night. They also live with two babies in the tent, he said.

Since the family members catch fish to sell to passers-by, Hangula said sometimes they find snakes in their nets, which they use to catch fish.

Hangula’s daughter, Maria, is a Grade 9 pupil at Onghala Combined School.

She says her family’s living conditions are not only harsh but also dangerous.“I fear being raped at night when I go out to relieve myself,” she said. “And if we don’t get mosquito nets soon, I think we will get malaria. There are too many mosquitoes here at night.”

Her school has closed due to the floods. She said she wants to return, but the rising water is in her way.

“I have to cross a stream where the water almost reaches my waist just to bath. I miss school. I want the water to go down.”

LIFE GOES ON

Despite the struggle, life goes on at the group of families’ makeshift camp. When The Namibian visited the Hangulas’ tent yesterday, about a kilometre from their submerged house, some family members were playing cards while the children roasted silverjaw minnow and catfish over a fire. Saima Hangula, a young mother, was stirring a blue container of tombo, the traditional brew she sells to passers-by.

Not far from this village, Patemoshela David of Onambango also faces disaster. Her mahangu field and parts of her homestead are under water. One of the rooms in her house, where her children used to sleep, collapsed under the weight of water-soaked mud.

Fortunately, no one was inside.

“I don’t sleep well at night. I am scared my room will collapse while I am sleeping. Even our kraal is flooded.

I had to move my goats to another house.

“If the water doesn’t go down, we will have to move. We won’t have a choice,” David said.

Ohangwena governor Sebastian Ndeitunga on Monday said the Ongenga, Engela, and Oshikango constituencies are the hardest hit in the region.

He said places such as Onamhinda, Onghala B and Eshoke are facing extreme conditions, such as houses being completely submerged.

Ndeitunga said doctors have been airlifted to treat patients at Onghala B, with some patients also being transported to hospitals at Engela.

He said about 250 people have been relocated to higher ground.