Allexer Namundjembo
A power and water crisis at Windhoek Central Hospital has impacted critical services, leaving patients and staff in dire conditions.
The problem started when rainwater damaged electrical terminals that were connected to the distribution box in the basement. This caused power cuts to several floors in the west wing and disrupted the water supply to the east wing.
The hospital’s ninth floor, which houses the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and other critical care wards, has been heavily affected.
Sources at the hospital told the Windhoek Observer on Saturday that these services are now consolidated on the ninth floor, including the pharmacy in the basement and the PICU ward.
“Patients had to be transferred to the surgical ICU, and all patients on the west wing are being nursed on the east side, which has caused overcrowding,” said the source.
According to the source, the staff were instructed to move patients to the ninth floor on the east side of the hospital since the wards have no power.
“There is no sign of workers fixing the problem. The floor is full, and there is no ventilation system working. If anything serious happens, it will cause a big crisis,” said the source.
The east side of the hospital is still wet and doesn’t have power, which makes things even worse.
Water is also not available on the ninth floor, where patients have relocated.
“It is full here, and on the east side there are kids, but they have now been moved to the east side. The patients are numerous, and they are just on the floor. Since there is no water, patients are surviving on the water their family members are supplying them.”
The Ministry of Health and Social Services confirmed the power outage was caused by rainwater leaking into the building and damaging the electrical distribution box for the western wing.
The executive director, Ben Nangombe, explained.
“The outage was caused by water leakage that damaged the distribution box. We have directed cleaners to remove the water that entered the building. As far as I know, no patients were harmed by this incident, as they were moved to floors with sufficient power.”
Nangombe assured that a team is working to address the situation.
He was unable to estimate when power would return or when regular operations would resume.
“The team is on the ground working, and I am getting regular updates on the situation. But I cannot confirm when the power will be restored,” he said.
Meanwhile, the water continues to drip from the west wing, affecting floors from the ninth down to the lower wards.
Another staff member, who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, said the hospital’s maintenance department has struggled to address recurring issues.
“The maintenance department has been dealing with a lot of water leakage since last year, but sometimes they don’t attend to these matters promptly. There is a need for a stronger and better-supervised maintenance department at Central,” said the staff member.
The Windhoek Observer also understands that a pipe has also burst at the psychiatric ward.
