By Kim Harrisberg
WINDHOEK, Namibia, March 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Pedro Dhila left his homestead in northern Namibia one year ago to seek greener pastures in the country’s capital, he meant it both literally and figuratively.
Dhila hoped Windhoek would hold better opportunities after worsening drought in the Omusati region decimated his crops and nearly 30 of his cows.
But once he arrived in the Okuryangava slum, he faced a new set of problems: overcrowding, crime and poor sanitation.
“It is very painful to live here where decent land and housing is hard to find. We can’t farm,” said 37-year-old Dhila, sitting outside his friend’s corrugated iron shack.
“I can think of 30 other families who left Omusati because of drought,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
As rural Namibians move to cities to escape the worst drought in nearly a century, many find themselves navigating a no-man’s land between over-saturated slums and the parched farmland they hope to one day return to, say activists and aid officials.
In 2015, nearly half of all Namibians lived in urban areas and that number is expected to reach 60% in 2030, according to Sweden’s Lund University – while the U.N. estimates nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050.
Last year, Namibian president Hage Geingob declared a state of emergency due to drought conditions, with five out of the previous six years experiencing low rainfall, according to the United Nations.
And in January, the southern African desert nation moved closer to famine after dam levels fell below 20%, a drop officials blame on climate change and prolonged drought.
As a result, families are “following the water”, said Bernadette Bock, secretary general of the Namibia Red Cross Society.
Many end up in makeshift houses in informal settlements in Windhoek, Bock added from her office in Katutura, a neighbourhood made up of several settlements in the capital.
An informal settlement is described by the United Nations as unplanned, unauthorised residential housing units to which the occupants have no legal claim.
