Oshakati Town Council has started with the implementation of stormwater drainage system around the local authority, which is prone to seasonal floods.
The stormwater drainage system forms part of the many components contained in the town council’s master plan awaiting implementation in phases when funding becomes available.
In recent years, the town has been at the centre of severe floods that have threatened to close down businesses, leaving residential areas in low-lying areas with no access.
This prompted the town council to submit a master plan to Cabinet to overhaul the design of the town and improve sanitation as well as the drainage system.
In turn, the government has so far allocated N$33 million for the town council to restructure the drainage system and deepen the Okatana River to mitigate against floods.
The money from the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development forms part of the N$50 million needed by the town for the implementation of its master plan submitted to Cabinet in 2008.
Oshakati has two main sources of floods: floods coming from neighbouring Angola (efundja) and stormwater from the rain. This stormwater, however, floods the houses because there are no drainage systems in place to channel the water coming directly from the roof of several houses.
The most affected locations by floods are Ekuku, Ehenye, and Shoopala.
Such water floods the houses, leaving residents around the town with no roof, as they are forced to abandon their homes and seek temporary accommodation.
In an interview with New Era yesterday, Oshana governor Elia Irimari said he has on many occasions reminded the town council to invest more in the stormwater drainage system and avoid seasonal floods.
“I emphasise every year that you can’t keep doing the same thing every year. We need to lessen the impact in terms of the cost of relocation,” he said.
“The best thing is to invest a lot so that the impact doesn’t repeat. We don’t want to relocate people every year. The Oshakati Town Council should invest more in stormwater drainage systems. Ongwediva and Ondangwa have no relocations due to floods because they have invested in the stormwater drainage system. We can’t keep repeating the same thing every year of relocating people.” In response, Oshakati mayor Leonard Hango confirmed the governor’s insistence on the drainage system.
“He indicated to us that we need to invest once and do away with those yearly floods,” he said.
Hango was quick to defend that Oshakati’s situation cannot be compared to that of Ongwediva and Ondangwa because of the different terrain characteristics.
Another reason he cited is that Ongwediva is on higher grounds compared to Oshakati.
Hango said the town council could not implement all components contained in the master plan at once due to constant budget cuts.
He explained the town is implementing parts of the plan that they think is crucial due to limited resources.
“We came up with the master plan to respond to the flooding incidences that impact residents of the town. We will continue to put in stormwater drainage systems. We finished some parts of Ekuku and Ehenye extensions that have over the years been hard-hit by stormwater. The drainage system counters stormwater from the roofs of houses. If you don’t have drainage systems, then the residents get flooded,” Hango noted.
Going forward, he assured Oshakati Town Council would ensure all reception areas to be developed have drainage systems from the onset.
He said the whole of Oshakati needs stormwater drainage systems that are interconnected to drain water out of the town.
“We are lucky because we are surrounded by two water channels - one being Okandjengedi and the other is Sky bridges.” Hango said the town council also commenced with the deepening of the floodplains on the west and east of the town to improve the flow of floodwater through the town.