Building materials meant to kick-start the construction a mental health facility at the Nankudu District Hospital in the Kavango West region have been lying abandoned since 2014.
This comes after the Ministry of Health and Social Services attempted to establish a mental health clinic in 2013, but the community allegedly turned down the proposal.
This was brought to light after the National Council standing committee on health, social welfare and labour affairs visited the Nankudu District Hospital in the Nkurenkuru district last week.
According to the committee, fencing mesh purchased in 2014 to create a psychiatric clinic on the site was never used.
The fence-building project never got off the ground, and the materials have sat unused since.
A cargo container next to the mesh contains sacks of cement, which were purchased in 2014, but have since expired.
However, Nankudu District Hospital senior medical officer Dr Glesson Haihambo told The Namibian in 2013 the health ministry held an engagement with community members to construct a mental health clinic in the area due to an increased number of people with mental illnesses in the region.
“It was discovered that there are more patients with mental illnesses around the areas of Kavango West and Kavango East. Instead of them being sent to Windhoek, it was agreed upon to build a clinic where a mass number of patients are,” Haihambo said.
After the engagement, the community reportedly rejected the proposal to build a mental health hospital in their community.
“The other reason I was told is that the community members preferred a regional hospital to be built first before the mental hospital,” he said.
Due to not reaching a consensus, the project could not kick off.
“However, the ministry had already brought the materials on site to fence off and start building the clinic,” Haihambo said.
The groundbreaking for the construction of the Nkurenkuru Regional Hospital was done in 2014, he said.
The land was fenced off but the project never took off. Nankudu District Hospital is the only big hospital in the Kavango West region,” Haihambo said.
‘ONLY A FEW MATERIALS’
Haihambo told The Namibian there were not many materials in the cargo container.
“There were still more materials to come, but these were just meant for starting the project. But because the community refused, they were left there,” he said.
“But sometimes we use the cement in the containers to do minor repairs such as when there is plumping to be done around the hospital, we can use them after the renovations are done,” he said.
Some cement was also used to build water channels during the flood season, he said.
“There is really nothing much in there. The meshes were just to fence off the area before the construction could kick off,” Haihambo said.
Contacted for commentary, Kavango West health director Francisca Hamutenya said she was in a doctor’s consultation room and promised to get back to The Namibian, however, she did not do so at the time of going to print.
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