Video of Wlotzkasbaken settlement located north of Swakopmund, west coast of Namibia.
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Wlotzkasbaken was named after Paul Wlotzka, who was a sturdy Prussian coachman to German Senator Pridas’ survey party which capitulated to the invading South African Forces in 1915. Pridas’ party was appointed by the arbitrator, King Alphonso of Spain, to delimit the disputed boundary line between Walvis Bay, under British rule, and the former German South West Africa. As a German, Wlotzka was very fortunate to be able to join this party, probably due to his intimate knowledge of the coastal area. Paul Wlotzka then became a merchant, delivering mail and general necessities to surveyors working north of Swakopmund, using a four-wheel-horse cart, probably up to Cape Cross. To store water and food for his horses halfway between Swakopmund and the Omaruru River mouth, today Henties Bay, Wlotzka erected a little shed made of self fabricated clay bricks about 200 meters from where the beacon is. The exact date is unfortunately unknown. Unfortunately Mr Dougal Bassinghtwaight a later lessee of the plot was forced by the PUDB for unknown reasons to brake down the ruins of Wlotzkas shed and only the rest of the foundations can still be seen today. He obviously spent time fishing near his shed, and brag in the pubs of Swakopmund about the good fishing spot below the beacon of Mile 20. Hence the locality Wlotzka’s Baken was borne.
In 1955, 87 erven were surveyed and leased to holiday makers. Later this number was increased to 110. Wlotzkasbaken was proclaimed a peri-urban area in 1972, and a village in 1992. A Government Notice from 1993 converted it back to a settlement area, denying the establishment of a Village Council for self-governance. The place is thus still under the direct jurisdiction of the Regional Council of the Erongo Region, a situation that has been described as a “burden”.
Only a few of its residents permanently live in Wlotzkasbaken, while during the holiday months of December and January several hundred people stay here, and the annual “Marterpfahl” (literally German: torture stake) angling festival between Christmas and New Year’s Eve lures several thousand visitors to the sleepy village.
Wlotzkasbaken is not supplied with permanent electricity and not connected to the public water system. Water is delivered by road and stored in private water towers that gives a unique character to the settlement’s skyline. There are 106 houses which were all designed and built by their owners. Every household is self-sustaining with regards to water and electricity. Privacy is achieved by the large distances between the houses. There are no walls or fences; boundaries are demarcated with rocks. The village thus features a unique type of settlement in Namibia and has even received some international attention because of this.
Close to the village Namibia’s first desalination plant was opened in April 2010. The plant supplies water to the Trekkopje Uranium Mine 65 km north-east of Swakopmund.
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