John Muyamba
Rundu-Petrus Kavhura who is the Ndonga Linena Constituency councillor in Kavango East says 2017 was a successful year looking at the progress, achievements in his constituency.
Kavhura who is also a member of the National Council told New Era last year when the constituency started looking at declaring of Ndonga Linena growth points and future settlements, his office successfully conducted information-sharing meetings with all affected communities of Shikenge, Makandu, Shankara, Ndonga-Linena villages.
The office established an Ad-hoc steering committee that worked on the draft layout of the future settlement and engaged the VaGciriku Traditional Authority and a consent letter was granted for the development of Ndonga-Linena into a settlement.
“The Community Development Committee endorsed the proposed layout and future settlement. The Kavango East Regional Council also endorsed the proposed development of Ndonga-Linena into a future settlement with resolution 637/26/10/17,” Kavhura noted.
“There was no distribution of the ordinary drought relief food last year, except or the most critical cases. The office received seventy-two bags of wheat and rice. Wheat was successfully distributed to the 148 target beneficiaries while the distribution of rice to more than 1072 residents is still ongoing to date. The process seems to have been slowed down due to transport challenges,” elaborated the parliamentarian in the House of Review.
On infrastructure development Kavhura noted that the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture successfully completed the renovation of a five-classroom building block at Ndonga-Linena Combined School.
While prefabricated clinic facilities were added to Ndonga-Linena Clinic by the Ministry of Health and Social Services with the help of USAID. “Completion of 46 rural pit latrine toilets is 95% complete at Shighuru and Kangweru villages whereby each village received an allocation of 23 toilets,” he told New Era upon inquiry.
“A big number of our citizens still do not have the necessary or correct national documents such as IDs and birth certificate. The Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration was unable to carry out their outreach programmes despite numerous request made to their Office,” he stated.
“As the office we were forced to use our Office vehicle to transport people in need of national documents to Rundu Office. So far the office has assisted the following villages: Shitemo, Shaghaya, Arevashweneka, Nyondo, Ndonga-Linena and Kangweru and on a positive note school going children at combined schools where assisted during a special outreach programme for school going children.”
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare last year appointed a staff member to focus on services such as child grant registration can be accessed at the councillors’ office.
Coming to village development initiatives Karukuta Villagea acquired an electricity transformer from a certain donor who donated the equipment to the village.
The village is working on a project to fund their own black line that will supply electricity to the surrounding households. “Nyondo Village have so far collected more than N$40 000 to lay a pipe line and 5 water points on a distance of 4.8 KM from Nyondo to Mangandu. Namwater has so far accessed the proposal and has agreed to assist and connect them to their supply pipe at Shaghaya village,” Kavhura noted.
New Era was also informed Shaghaya village has also embarked upon to electrify the village, so far the community has collected more than N$57 000, while on the other hand Kanyumara village is working on the expansion of their water and electricity supply.
“The village has introduced a community Bank project whereby each household contributed N$10.00 per month to be used for emergency assistance around their village,” he said.