Africa-Press – Namibia. Deputy minister of urban and rural development Evelyn !Nawases-Taeyele officially launched three different land development activities and housing construction projects at Otjiwarongo on Friday.
The projects, under the Municipality of Otjiwarongo, were launched at the Extension 16 site, where the water reticulation programme and the laying of pipelines are being conducted by the Otjiwarongo municipality’s land development partner, the Development Workshop Namibia (DWN).
The digging of trenches by the DWN started on 2 May this year at the peri-ferry informal settlement of Otjiwarongo.
“The DWN is expected to spend over N$4.5 million in land servicing only for Extension 16 and 17 respectively,” said Nawases-Taeyele.
She said the Otjiwarongo municipality at the beginning of this year allocated a portion of land to the Shack Dwellers’ Federation of Namibia, where it is expected to bring services for its 204 members in the town to build their houses.
Based on this Nawases-Taeyele wants all local authority councils in the country to donate land to the federation, saying it has proven on many occasions as a reliable housing development partner.
The Namibia Housing Action Group has also pledged to spend N$6.5 million on development at Extension 24 and 25, where a total of 100 houses should be constructed starting this year.
“Your Government has a big plan to abolish the use of bushes when nature calls in towns, including the reduction in shack houses in this country. Therefore, let us upgrade the types of houses we have in the informal settlements to standard brick houses with the little funds available,” she said.
Otjiwarongo Mayor, Gottlieb Shivute remarked that a total of 4 000 plots and houses should be delivered by these three land development and housing partners between 2025 and 2026.
“The planning of the three projects had started in 2018 and was completed in 2020, and now it is the delivery of services we are waiting to see,” he said.
Otjiwarongo has a population of nearly 54 000 residents.
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