Rundu residents on Monday held a peaceful demonstration against poor service delivery by the town council. They assembled at the Rundu Town Council around 14h00 and marched along Maria Mwengere Road to the office of Kavango East Governor, Samuel Mbambo, where they handed over a petition. The petition lists complaints about inadequate service delivery and slow development by the Rundu Town Council, said Lusia Nelao Immanuel, who served as the group’s spokesperson. One of their biggest concerns is the water issue. “This lack of water supply has for the most part caused residents to incur financial constraints in trying to source funds to draw water from the river directly, which is also dangerous and unsafe as a child drowned while residents flocked to the river to fetch water,” said Immanuel. Rundu’s water supply was disconnected because it was unable to buy enough units to have its water connected. NamWater placed Rundu on a pre-paid credit system and removed it from the conventional water supply system for more effective revenue collection after the town accrued debt of close to N$60 million. The town’s water supply was reconnected at the beginning of November after NamWater was paid enough for the town to be supplied for the next three months. Though the group acknowledged the involvement of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development in paying NamWater, it said the water crisis persists in places such as Kehemu, Ndama, Donkerhoek and Sauyemwa. They also voiced their disappointment at the lack of street lights in informal settlements, saying it leads to an increase in criminal activities and jeopardises the safety and security of residents. “The roads in town are also in terrible condition and we still have gravel roads after 28 years of independence. The roads which are full of potholes are only patched when politicians come to town,” Immanuel said. The group demanded that the town council do whatever it can to pay off the debt owed to NamWater and to take water meter readings instead of basing bills on estimations. They gave the Rundu Town Council until the end of January 2019 to respond to their demands, saying if they fail to do so, local authority councillors should do the honourable thing and resign in order to let competent people to run the town. Mbambo upon receiving the petition applauded the group for exercising their democratic right and promised the group to deliver their plea to the relevant people. “I will attend to the petition, take it up with the relevant people and respond to it in due time as requested,” he said.