Although housing provision remains a challenge, rural sanitation, road and electricity infrastructure are some of the “achievements” Khomas governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua listed in the past financial year during her state of the region address on Wednesday.
“Housing provision remains one of the key challenges that the Khomas region is faced with. Therefore, in its effort to address the housing shortage in the region, the Khomas Regional Council availed N$3.5 million for the construction of affordable houses in the informal settlements,” said McLeod-Katjirua.
She said this is a joint initiative of which the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development also contributed N$81 million, City of Windhoek (N$10 million), while the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) contributed N$15 million towards the project.
The project was launched in July last year with the aim to construct affordable and decent houses for residents in informal settlements.
McLeod-Katjirua said these projects are in full swing and thus far Phase 1 (a), targeting 80 beneficiaries, has completed 65 houses to date.
“Phase 1 (b), targeting 220 beneficiaries, has completed the procurement process. The overall project is expected to produce 1 200 housing units over two years, starting from July 2020 to June 2022 whereby NHE will build 600 houses and the City of Windhoek will build 600 houses over the same period,” she said.
In addition, she said the City of Windhoek has recently approved a flagship housing project known as Ongos.
This housing development project, she said, will produce over 1 105 single units once completed by NHE and most residents will benefit immensely from this project in terms of shelter and employment.
In its quest to improve rural sanitation for its residents, McLeod-Katjirua said the council constructed and completed 137 toilets in Windhoek Rural at a value of N$2.2 million.
These toilets, she explained, were constructed at Farm Areb, Arovlei, Dordabis, Welgemoed, Farm Garib, Nauaspoort and Verdruk and are expected to benefit close to 1 175 households.
In addition, she said, 84 toilets to the value of N$1.2 million are also under construction in the Windhoek Rural constituency.
As far as public roads are concerned, McLeod-Katjirua said the Roads Authority (RA) has completed and officially opened Section 4a portion of the Windhoek-Okahandja road project.
In addition, she said, the RA is constructing Phase 1 2a of the Windhoek-Hosea Kutako International Airport and Phase 2b of this project is expected to commence during the 2021/22 financial year.
“The works progress on Phase 1 has reached 91% and the main project works is expected to be completed by August 2021, while the additional works on the southern link to the Rehoboth roadblock and access to Prosperita are expected to be completed in January and February 2022 respectively,” she said.
She said Phase 2a of the same project has reached 12% and is on course for completion in September 2023.
Concerning electricity infrastructure in the region, the governor said, to improve the living conditions in the informal communities, NamPower has embarked on a peri-urban electrification project to electrify 1 000 households in the informal settlements of the city.
The project, she said is valued at N$22 million and is NamPower’s single largest corporate social investment initiative.
She said during the middle of 2020, the City of Windhoek assisted with the identification of the localities, which would significantly benefit from the NamPower CSI initiative.
“The scope of works for the electrification of the 1 000 households include the construction of medium to low voltage networks, installation of streetlights and individual house connections, including Distribution Boards (DBs) and prepaid meters,” she said.