KATIMA MULILO – Katima Mulilo CEO Rafael Liswaniso says the council is battling with the construction of a new sewer treatment plant, as the current one is old.
He said due to the obsolete sewer system, that was before independence, the town’s underground water has become contaminated as the old pipes leak. The old sewer system cannot cope with the growing population of the town, hence the need to construct a new plant. “The master plan, which started in 2023 has been completed. The blueprint will be open to the public to see the outline, especially of the sewer treatment plant. The plant will be next to the pond and will accommodate cater for about 40 000 households. Currently, the sewer accommodates about 15 000 households. Once that is done, we will be safe in terms of sewer,” Liswaniso said during the Katima Mulilo election for political office bearers earlier this year. The estimated cost of the new sewer plant is around N$630 million.
Re-elected Katima Mulilo mayor, John Ntemwa announced the council had approved a budget of N$181.2 million, of which N$29.8 million will be for capital projects.
“An amount of N$4 million was received from central government as a subsidy for 2024/25 financial year. This subsidy will be for the re-routing of sewers in selected areas of our town,” said the mayor. Construction is scheduled to start in January next year. Zambezi governor Lawrence Sampofu echoed similar sentiments.
“We have our sewer system in our town which is a headache. Our people should understand that our sewer was put up around 1965. They did not build it with pipes. They were using sandbags. So now the sand is blocking the flow of the sewage. The town council is working very hard to ensure this is rectified with the few dollars they have left. This year, they only got N$4 million from the Ministry of Rural and Urban Development, which is not enough for the challenges faced by our town. We ask our people to be patient with the town council as they are working on the sewer system,” Sampofu noted.
Ntemwa also touched on the finalisation of roads, sewer and water master plan among other key areas. “With the help of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, the council has engaged Windhoek Consulting Engineers to develop a master plan. This project will be concluded mid-December 2024,” he said.
On re-routing of sewer lines in the Soweto and Bebi locations, Ntemwa said the plans had already been finalised by the consultant and tenders for the work will be advertised soon.
“This will alleviate the current sewer spillage in these areas,” he said. The mayor added that the council has undertaken an initiative to formalise Diary settlement into a formal location. About 1 206 households are envisaged to be formalised once the exercise is completed and council will provide land tenure to the occupants of the settlement. This, Ntemwa believes, will pave the way for the construction of all necessary municipal infrastructure.
A similar formalisation project to one in Diary is also been undertaken in Macaravani West where 2 500 households were identified, and the mapping of the area is underway.