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    Namibia: Ox-Drawn Carts Used As Ambulances At Kapako in Kavango West

    OneAfricaYTBy No Comments4 Mins Read
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    In the remote stretches of the Kapako constituency in the Kavango West region, ox-drawn carts have become makeshift ambulances, and five families have paid the ultimate price for this inadequate access to healthcare.

    The reality of the underserved constituency came into sharp focus during an ongoing Kavango West regional leadership engagement on Wednesday, where community members laid bare decades of neglect that have turned medical emergencies into death sentences.

    “Many councillors have received our cries daily, and it has become the norm.

    We have lost more than five innocent lives due to poor roads and a lack of clinical facilities,” Gcugcuma village headman Kapeta Sikukutu told regional leaders during the engagement. The said they have been complaining about the same issue since Namibia gained its independence in 1990.

    “People have died on their way to the hospital from remote areas because of transport problems,” the headman said.

    The problem lies in Kapako’s reliance on centuries-old transport methods in an era of modern medicine.

    “We use the traditional mode of transport, which is oxen, and it contributes to the loss of lives. It takes hours for one to reach the clinic, which is 30km away from where we live,” Sikukutu said.

    Maria Michael of Nkata village knows this reality intimately. Seven years ago, she lost her son (8) during a desperate night-time journey to the hospital.

    “We used the oxen to transport him – that’s all we had. There was nowhere we could get a car because it was the middle of the night,” she recounted.

    Michael’s tragedy is one of five similar deaths that have struck remote villages around Kapako over the past year. “I don’t want any other mother to go through what I went through. No child should die because a road is too bad to travel on. No family should have to choose between staying home and watching their loved one suffer, or risking everything on a journey that might kill them anyway,” Michael said.

    Kapako constituency councillor Johannes Kalondo, while acknowledging the ongoing crisis, expressed uncertainty about the exact scale of the tragedy.

    “I’m aware of the ongoing issues, but I can’t really confirm that it’s five lives lost, because the number could be more or less. I can’t confirm the exact periods for such deaths,” he said. What Kalondo could confirm was the constituency’s dire infrastructure reality.

    “Since independence, Kapako has not had proper roads,” he said. When approached for comment on the deaths, Kavango West governor Verna Sinimbo expressed concern and outlined immediate improvement plans. “It’s very unfortunate to hear that families lost their loved ones. It’s unfortunate, and condolences to the families that lost their loved ones in that way,” she said.

    The governor’s recent constituency familiarisation visit served as what she called “an eye-opener”. The journey itself illustrated the problem as it took nearly an hour to drive just 30km to 40km due to the road conditions.

    “We cannot deny what we saw during our stay. We are going to prioritise, and there are already plans underway,” Sinimbo announced. The centrepiece of these plans is the Erago road project, stretching from Matende to the Erago clinic. “It’s going to be quite a long stretch, and in my view, is going to resolve some of these issues like these unfortunate incidents of people losing their loved ones due to road infrastructure,” the governor said.