ONDANGWA: Employees of the Ondangwa Town Council have started cleaning water channels and culverts in order to mitigate floods risks during the rainy season.Town council spokesperson Petrina Shitalangaho-Mutikisha told Nampa the exercise started in December and is ongoing.Areas in need of cleaning are identified through random inspections and reports from residents.'The water channels were created to channel the flow of water collected either from houses or from high land to low land, but often you find them being used as dumping sites by the residents,' Shitalangaho-Mutikisha said.She said the rubbish dumped by residents cause blockages, which lead to flooding of properties if not addressed in a timely fashion.Shitalangaho-Mutikisha urged residents to refrain from dumping refuse into the water channels.Another challenge experienced is the drainage of water into the sewer system through rodding eyes (a section of pipe) or other openings made by residents, which put pressure on the sewer system as it was not designed to accommodate such inflow. This leads to pumps breaking, Shitalangaho-Mutikisha said.She further indicated that the pumps are unable to function properly as the water entering the system consists of sand and other waste materials, resulting in pumps slowing down and breaking.Shitalangaho-Mutikisha stressed that replacing burning parts is costly, time consuming and an inconveniencing residents as these pumps are required to run 24/7.Source: Namibia Press Agency