Rauna Kalola

The Erongo region’s census coordinator, Eino Shaanika, has said the overall performance of the 2023 Population and Housing Census is going well, especially with the response from the public. 

“If we look at the results that are coming in – and the respondents from the households, the region stands over 80%. We are still busy; information is still coming in, and the response rate is quite overwhelming,” he stated. 

The enumeration activity commenced on 18 September and will end on 3 November 2023.

He highlighted that the Erongo region is vested with diverse industries, such as mining, fishing and tourism, which posed a challenge during enumeration. 

The most concerning area in terms of data collection is the offshore workers. 

“We have overwhelming support from the industry and its stakeholders, and we are trying our best to reach out to them through the Ministry of Fisheries, the Fisheries Observer Agency and the fishermen’s association,” Shaanika noted.

Another area of concern was the accommodation establishments, where hotels did not give desirable responses due to the privacy and confidentiality of their clients’ information. 

“We are trying to mitigate that by reaching out to hotel managers through the Hospitality Association of Namibia,” he added. 

There have also been issues of access to locked farm gates, incidences of public instigation and threats. 

However, with the assistance of various regional stakeholders, these challenges have been overcome. 

“When it comes to the farms in the Karibib and Omaruru constituencies, we have seen that most could be accessed through one gate before you get to the next. Thanks to the leadership of the region, as the governor came first to ensure people complied with the census on the ground.

“Furthermore, the regional Namibian Police commander was hands-on with us and assigned police officers to our teams to assist us in this regard,” he continued.

The region reported three incidents of attempted robbery, where thieves wanted to grab tablets used to capture data from census enumerators.

“Unfortunately, in one incident, they managed to get away with the phone of the enumerator, but the tablet was saved. In other cases, the public came to the rescue of the enumerators in time,” Shaanika said.

*Rauna Kalola is an information officer for MICT Erongo region.