Two minors drowned in an open pit at Rundu today while playing in the water.

The children accompanied their mother, who had gone to the swamp for fishing.

According to the mother, Franciska Hausiku, she left her three children under a tree near one of the open pits while she moved on to the next.

It is alleged that the youngest child, who is three years old, was playing in the water.

The seven-year-old sister then saw her younger sister struggling in the water and tried to help her out; however, both of them drowned.

Residents of the Suncity location at Rundu have been without running water for months. 

They have now resorted to collecting water from the supply lines found above the ground. 

Residents say they have been without water since October last year, while others have never had running water since their taps were installed. 

This has left the community with no choice but to get water from any other pipe.

The Rundu Town Council is finally taking action to improve the status of the Tumweneni informal settlement.

The action comes after a directive from the Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Erastus Uutoni, in August 2022 to formalise Tumweneni.

Tumweneni came into existence in 2018 through illegal land grabbing.

Upon his visit to the informal settlement, Minister Uutoni advised the town council to see to it that service is brought closer to the informal settlements. 

Since its establishment, the population of Tumweneni has increased.

Mayor Gabriel Kanyanga says the pothole-filled roads at Rundu will soon be a thing of the past, as they are in the process of awarding a tender to repair them.

Kanyanga said this during a ceremony where he was re-elected as the town's first citizen.

Mayor Kanyanga assured the town's residents that the Rundu Town Council has heard their cries and will continue working on improving the road infrastructure.

The Rundu Town Council has stopped informal traders from Angola from selling in town.

This has left the Namibian street vendors unhappy because of transport they now have to pay to buy products from their Angolan counterparts. 

Over the years Angolan nationals have been crossing the border into Namibia with no limitation to selling their products.

The vendors would take various vegetables to their customers at designated stands.

Some residents of the Tutungeni residential area at Rundu are calling on the Rundu Town Council to completely rehabilitate the ditches left behind after it laid sewerage pipes.

The uneven ground has blocked access to the residents' houses.

Residents claim that the problem remained unattended for the past 20 years.

They say whenever the Town Council fixes the sewer pipe, they dig but do not level the ground afterward.

The situation becomes worse during the rainy season.

Rundu residents are at risk of eating contaminated freshwater fish after it was discovered that some of them are fishing in and selling fish they caught from the sewerage water.

nbc News has learned that some of the residents have been catching fish in the sewerage water at the Kaisosi settlement.

For over five years now, the sewerage pond has been overflowing, especially during the rainy seasons.

Some residents go fishing in the early or late hours to avoid being detected.

Residents of Rundu are still not happy with the services offered by NORED.

They expressed themselves at a consultation meeting, organized by the Rundu Town Council.

The Ministry of Urban and Rural Development and the Ministry of Mines and Energy are consulting and soliciting inputs from key stakeholders on the establishment of Regional Electricity Distributors and their impact on local authorities.

The Rundu Town Council has destroyed crops planted next to the sewerage pond at Kaisosi location.

The subsistence farmers are unhappy, saying they were not notified.

The subsistence farmers have been farming on the land next to the sewerage pond for almost five years.

Farmers say they derive their livelihood from these crops.

Despite the angry commotion at the scene, the council continued with its work and, in the process, destroyed some crop fields that were far from the sewerage pond.

The Swapo Party Youth League is dismayed by the re-opening of the Rundu Cash and Carry supermarket before a re-inspection of expired goods was carried out.

The shop was reopened following the Rundu Town Council's signaling of the green light.

A video of expired goods being handled went viral on social media.

Based on that evidence, health inspectors from Rundu Town temporarily closed the main shop after discovering more expired goods on the shelves.

The shop was closed until it could prove that it met hygiene standards.