Windhoek
Opuwo Town Council faces an uphill struggle in terms of providing land for the construction of houses, as the town is located in a mountainous area and there is a dire lack of technical and engineering expertise at the town.
Chairperson of the Management Committee of Opuwo Town Council Rex Thikameni Sheehama said their challenges do not differ greatly from many other towns when it comes to the availability of land.
“The availability of land is hampering our development. As a town, we want to extend the boundaries, but to put infrastructure on top of the mountains is very expensive. We’re also trying to look at the east of the town where we have at least flat land,” he said.
The flat land to the east of the town, however, belongs to the traditional authorities and it is not easy to convince them to transfer land to the town council for residential development, he explained.
Further, he said the town council has consulted the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development to approach the traditional leaders on behalf of the council to have the town’s boundaries extended.
“People have taken the law into their own hands to grab land and set up their shacks wherever they find a piece of land to dwell on. This creates a problem, because when you want to go and service this land, you have to compensate them to move,” he stressed.
He explained that due to the drought that has hit the Kunene hard, many villagers have started migrating to bigger towns in search of greener pastures, as they abandon communal subsistence activities.
Sheehama also said the town does not have adequate finances to set up developmental infrastructure that will attract investors. He revealed that the town does not have highly-qualified and skilled personnel, such as engineers, adding that there is nothing much in Opuwo to attract highly-skilled people, even if positions are advertised.
To add to their concerns, Sheehama noted that the town council is yet to receive the requested N$400 000 for the 2015/16 financial year to carry out some of its planned projects.
“At the moment we did not start with our capital projects yet, because the money has not yet been released. The projects that are ongoing now are funded from the previous budget,” he said.
Despite this, he says the town council achieved a lot during the previous financial year, including the finalisation of the sewerage system and the rehabilitation of the underground water pipeline.
He said the water pipeline was outdated, hence the need to rehabilitate it and treat the water first to be fit for human consumption. It cost the town council about N$70 million to replace the pipeline.
The municipality also acquired a fire truck, as the town is vulnerable to regular shack fires. Another concern he raised is the dumping of waste around the town, saying it is an eye-sore, which also drives investors away. They now plan to conduct an educational awareness campaign to teach residents about waste management and how to use the provided garbage bins.
Opuwo has about 17 000 residents and was proclaimed a town in 1995.