COMMUNITY members manning water points in villages should be paid for their work, a Swapo MP in the National Council said on Monday.

Henock Kankoshi said village water committees are responsible for collecting money on behalf of NamWater and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry.

"They are also entrusted with paying that money to NamWater offices every end of the month.

They are not receiving anything from NamWater," he said.

He said because of this they are tempted to keep some of the money, which has led to NamWater disconnecting some water points due to non-payment.

"One example is the closure of the Ekuku-Omutse-Ongenga pipeline by NamWater on November 16 2005, which negatively affected the community and schoolchildren at Omutse Combined School and Okahanya Primary School," said Kankoshi.

He was speaking during debate on the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry's budget.

In his contribution, Swapo MP Arma Martin applauded the Ministry for the success of its rural water-supply programme.

Martin said the whole Oshana Region now has access to clean drinking water.