Maria David & Placido Hilukilwa
AT LEAST 286 learners have stopped attending classes in the Ohangwena Region, while an entire community in the Oshana Region is cut off from the rest of the country due to heavy rains and floodwaters from Angola.
Due to rainwater, the Shingunguma Combined School in the Ohangwena Region has suspended classes from pre-primary to Grade 7, affecting 286 of the school’s 376 learners.
On the other hand, residents of villages near Lake Oponona in the Oshana Region are currently cut off, unable to reach urban centres such as Oshakati due to excessive water in their area. A local seasonal river is overflowing its banks, making the only existing makeshift bridge impassable.
Leonard Hango, the senior hydrologist of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, said that much of the water in the iishana is rainwater, but floodwater from Angola has also reached the western parts of the Cuvelai system—specifically areas of the Omusati Region such as Odimbwa, Okalongo, and Outapi. He said that the floodwater’s southward flow has already reached Lake Oponona.
Hango added that he is also monitoring the situation in the eastern parts of the Cuvelai system and will keep the nation updated accordingly.
“In the meantime, everyone in flood-prone areas must be on alert,” he said.
