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INDILENI Shaama (55) is sitting under a tree at Oshikango. She and her family of seven, including toddlers, do not have enough food for dinner.

She was relocated to Oshikango after her house was flooded nearly two weeks ago.

“We are starving here because we don’t have food. The food we had at home had been spoiled by flood water before we were relocated,” she said when The Namibian visited the relocation site yesterday.

“Tonight, we are going to have instant porridge and mopane worms we bought from the open market.”

When she had pap, the toddlers would not eat it with mopane worms, she said.

“They could only eat it with milk but I cannot afford milk as none of us are employed.”

When her family arrived at the relocation site where seven families were being accommodated, she brought some food along but that is now finished.

A group of 64 people, including babies as young as two-months-old, are being accommodated in seven makeshift tents donated by the government through the office of Oshikango constituency councillor.

Most of the families are from Oshikango village, while two are from Onamhida village.

“We have not received food from the government. We only got tents,” said Shaama.

She pleaded with the government, business people and individual citizens to assist her family and other flood victims with food.

She said they lost food, clothes, bedding and their chickens as a result of the devastating floods, which left a number of people homeless in the Ohangwena and Oshana regions.

When she left her family home, the water level was above her knees, and when they visited the house this week, the water level had risen, and her crops have been destroyed, she said.

“I think we will not harvest this year.”

Another flood victim, Rebecca Belnadino (22), said flood victims should be provided with mosquito nets and mattresses.

She said some of those accommodated in the tents are forced to sleep on the floor without a mattress because they cannot fit on the beds, some of which were damaged by the flood waters.

Twenty three people from her house have been relocated, and her family lost about 10 chickens, mahangu, clothes and blankets, she said.

Her neighbour, Maria Djuulume (20), also lost food, chickens and ducks.

Djuulume said there is no clean water at the centre.

“We buy water from the filling station every day. Each container of water costs N$5. The water is not enough for all of us. We are 28 in the tent and we can only afford six containers per day and they only last for a single day,” she said.

She urged the government to provide a container of clean water.

“We can’t bath during the day. We only bath at night when nobody sees us,” she said.

Epifania Mwaifana (54) has asked the government to provide food, water and mosquito nets to those relocated as the place is invested with mosquitos.

On Wednesday, Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) president McHenry Venaani described the conditions of those relocated to the makeshift tents at Oshikango as squalid.

He said that about 40 elders are kept in one tent, while children sleep on the floor.

He asserted that the emergency centre is not fit to accommodate human beings.

“Emergency response is not responding. I saw children sleeping on the floor. I saw elders all lumped in one tent. Are you telling me the army of this country does not have tents?”

Executive director in the Office of the Prime Minister I-Ben Nashandi told The Namibian on Wednesday that the situation at Oshikango developed overnight.

About 50 tents were discharged to Oshikango on Tuesday night, he said.

“Our idea is to have a tent for every family.”

However, the site visited by The Namibian only has six tents.

The Office of the Prime Minister collaborated with the Ohangwena Regional Council to establish temporary relocation sites to shelter those whose houses are severely affected by the floods.

Four relocation sites at Ohangwena have to date accommodated 116 people, said Nashandi.

“However, due to an increasing rise in water, the number of persons per tent changes as more people move in when the situation changes,” he said.

Thus, the Office of the Prime Minister and Ohangwena Regional Council have made more tents available, he said.

“As regards to mattresses, when families move to relocation sites, their conditions are assessed. Those in need are provided with blankets and mattresses and shelter in tents,” Nashandi said this week.