Residents of Saamstaan, a residential area in Usakos, have been pleading for basic sanitation services for nearly 20 years – a plea that falls on deaf ears.

The community continues to call on the municipality to restore their dignity by addressing their long-overlooked need for proper toilet facilities.

Pensioner Ouma Surikus and her 57-year-old neighbour, Cecelia Brandt, are among the many residents around the area who received homes through the Build Together Programme in the early 2000s.

While grateful for roofs over their heads, the women say the most basic necessity, which is access to functioning toilets, was never included.

Since 2007, they and several other residents have been pleading with the municipality to provide them with proper sanitation.

Left with no alternative, the residents dig holes in their yards or resort to rushing to the nearby bush to relieve themselves.

Initially intended as a temporary solution, these now represent a persistent source of frustration and danger.

Efforts to obtain comment from the Usakos Town Council have proven unsuccessful.