Communities Want Jumbos Out - by Wezi Tjaronda WINDHOEK – Tired of elephants that da-mage water infrastructure, homesteads and make people live in fear, communities in the Omatjete area want the elephants relocated elsewhere.

“We want them out of this area. We don’t think they are from this area. They were chased away from villages in upper Ugab in the Kunene Region,” said a councillor in the Zeraua Traditional Authority, Fabianus Uaseapuani.

He said around 1991 and 1992, the area had a few elephants, which would come and go back to areas around the Brandberg, which has fountains.

Human-elephant conflict in the area is no strange phenomenon. Communities have time and again complained about the problems the elephants cause and have called on the authorities to come up with a lasting solution to their problems. At some point, they threatened to take the law into their own hands.

But this time around, they want elephants to be taken out of the area for them to live in peace. Uaseuapuani said although elephants in other communities contributed to the upliftment of people’s living standards through tourism, the conservancies in the area especially Ohungu was not benefiting from the elephants because of the extensive damage they cause.

But the Chief Control Warden: Erongo Regional Services in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Simukusi Cletius Maketo, said elephants like human beings were free to move everywhere as they pleased.

He said if they cause problems, the ministry would see how the problems could be mitigated. Maketo was in Omatjete yesterday for meetings on the problem.

“Elephants move for a reason and this time they are here because it is dry and they need water. Unfortunately, the places with water are inhabited by people,” he said.

Uaseuapuani told New Era the area has about 30 elephants that are causing havoc.

“They are still a problem. They damage our water points and people are living in fear,” he said. The villagers said the jumbos sometimes chase them and they have to seek refuge in the mountains. New Era understands that a herd of elephants last week chased a group of goat herders in Okandomba area.

The councillor said authorities should consider two options, either to remove the elephants completely or reduce their numbers.

According to chairman of the Ohungu conservancy, Ben Haakuria, the conservancy members did not benefit because the infrastructure damaged by the elephants was neither replaced nor repaired.

With the country’s no compensation policy, Haakuria said people were killed, leaving their dependants in poverty because they were not compensated.

One of the solutions, he suggested, could be to construct separate water points for elephants, which would reduce conflict with people.

Towards the end of last year, 10 water points were damaged. But this year alone, five water points have already been destroyed leaving one community, Okandumba, with no water at all.

“The elephants completely destroyed their water tank. They have no tank to collect water from since last Friday,” the chairman said.

Maketo said protecting water points from elephants and teaching people how to co-exist with elephants were some of the measures the ministry was looking into