By Staff Reporter WINDHOEK Outspoken councillor for Sibbinda constituency Felix Mukupi says the Caprivi Region is the most underdeveloped in the country despite its potential both as a popular tourism destination and a breadbasket that could feed the nation. Because of perennial rivers and the availability of good soil, the Caprivi Region has the potential to produce enough food to feed the whole nation but this is yet to be tapped. Mukupi, a prominent businessman and a ruling Swapo Party politician, feels the Caprivi lags behind the other twelve regions of the country “in terms of development”. He says there is a lack of potable water in some areas of Sibbinda constituency where he is the councillor and that the Department of Rural Water Supply should rehabilitate the Kongola-Katima Mulilo water pipeline, a livelihood for hundreds of villagers. The Department of Water Affairs should consider extending the Linyanti water pipeline to Sangwali to address perennial water problems facing the rural poor living in that area. The Linyanti-Sangwali gravel road that is normally slippery during the wet season and has claimed many lives should be upgraded because many tourists use it when they visit the game reserves found in that area. Mukupi also feels that since the number of tourists on game safaris to game reserves teeming with wildlife is increasing, better roads and communication infrastructure are needed so that the figure could be boosted. He said he was not happy that patients transferred from the state hospital at Katima Mulilo to Rundu “have to buy their own food”. He claimed that some have died in transit. Mukupi appealed to the Ministry of Health and Social Services to address shortages of medical staff, particularly doctors in his area as a matter of urgency.