In its quest to provide water to its residents, Ruacana Town Council drilled 10 boreholes at a cost of N$800 000 during the current financial year.

Mayor of Ruacana Erastus Mashina said the boreholes were drilled to ensure its residents have access to water, as a dry rainy season in Angola led to a lack of water in the Ruacana waterfalls, which affected electricity generation and water for the residents.

During the same period, council also constructed a 3km road.

The project was funded by the Road Fund Administration.

On housing provision, council surveyed Extension 3.

“The extension has 308 erven for both residential and business purposes,” said Mashina.

A further 44 houses were constructed at the town during the same period.

Despite the aforementioned achievements, Mashina said council’s economic activities were slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said Covid-19 has negatively affected the council revenues – as such, a number of residents and businesses failed to honour their municipal bills.

“A number of customers defaulted on their municipal accounts, as their business operation were limited by the Covid-19 regulations,” said Mashina.

He said small and medium enterprises, which are the backbone of the economy, were also negatively affected, as they could not operate optimally.