Malakia Nashongo
ONDANGWA – Humbleness, hardwork, quality leadership and commitment from the mayor of Ondangwa led to Ondangwa being selected the cleanest town in Namibia for 2019.
This was also made possible after the mayor of Ondangwa Paavo Amwele donated all his mayoral allowances to the council for the purpose of recruiting more young people to help with the cleaning of the town.
According to Ismael Namugongo, the Chief Executive Officer of Ondangwa, the mayor selflessly ceded all his allowances to enable the council to ‘recruit additional youth to help in the cleaning of Ondangwa’, to clean up the town.
Apart from donating his allowances, the mayor also volunteered his trucks, tractors and provided free fuel to help with the cleaning of the town of Ondangwa.
On his part, Amwele said they started with educational campaigns informing residents that filthiness is not good for the town as it comes with health hazards such as Hepatitis E and other diseases and that made people realise that being in a clean environment is healthier and beneficial.
“If you go to people’s houses in this town, some of them they don’t want the council to come collect the garbage from their houses but they use their own private vehicles (bakkies) to transport the garbage to the dumping site. People really understand the essence of hygiene,” explained Amwele.
Apart from the town being clean, the effective management of the dumping site of the Ondangwa town has led to the council to be awarded the Environmental Clearance Certificate from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
*Malakia A.L Nashongo works as an Information Officer for the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology stationed in Oshakati in Oshana Region