ONGWEDIVA – More than 900 000 Namibians live in informal settlements in urban areas, the Deputy Minister of Urban and Rural Development Derek Klazen revealed.
He said those in the informal areas are people without or earn a low-income.
The revelations were made at the Buy-A-Brick handover of houses at Helao Nafidi recently.
Speaking at a similar occasion at Okongo, Klazen said the housing challenge is a big concern for government, particularly at a time when the country faces the challenge of massive migration from rural to urban centres.
Klazen said due to the myriad of competing priorities, government alone cannot provide houses.
“We need everyone’s input to work together, and as partners we can do things better,” said Klazen.
Just recently, the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) through the Standard Bank Buy-A-Brick initiative handed over 20 houses at Okongo and an additional 10 at Helao Nafidi.
So far, 200 houses were constructed through the Buy-A-Brick initiative.
The initiative was also recently launched in Zambia and more African countries are expected to follow.
In addition to the 20 houses which were recently handed over to SDFN, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development on its part also handed over 43 houses which are funded through the urban ministry.
Klazen further said the shortage of housing in the country is a very emotive subject as hundreds of people are living in deplorable conditions, hoping that one day they will have decent housing.
Given the aforementioned, government is thus committed to provide and accelerate housing provision through its fifth National Development Plan.
In conjunction with other social and economic challenges, Klazen said government is working around the clock to reach the NDP5 target to reduce the households living in impoverished conditions to 12 percent by 2020 and by building 7200 houses every year between 2017 and 2022.