OSHAKATI - While the Oshana Regional Council has made great strides towards developing the region, there are still many critical projects that are yet to be fully implemented.
Such projects which include incomplete classrooms are noticeable in the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture where 11 projects have not been completed since 2011.
Some of these projects are only between five percent and 30 percent complete.
“Some projects have also been abandoned by contractors since 2016, a tendency that denies the Namibian child access to decent education facilities,” the Governor of Oshana Elia Irimari said.
The revelation was made by Irimari in his State of the Region’s Address yesterday.
Other incomplete projects include the proposed construction of Ondangwa Referral Hospital as well as the Veterinary centre in Ondangwa.
At the community level, the council implemented various community infrastructure projects in order to uplift the livelihood of people particularly in the remote areas.
The community projects include installation of water pipelines and tanks, road network and provision of electricity. Giving an account of the 2018/19 financial year, Irimari said more than N$2 million has also been reserved for the construction of 140 toilets in the 11 constituencies in order to improve sanitation in the region.
During the year under review, only two people have been resettled on farms by the Ministry of Land Reform.
To date, 49 people in the region have benefited from the resettlement program.
On a positive note, the region also saw a reduction in rape cases from 101 in the 2017/18 financial year to 71 in the 2018/2019 financial year.
Despite such reduction in the rape cases, there was an increase in Gender Based Violence from 652 in the 2017/18 financial year to 581 cases in 2018/19.
Other challenges crippling the region include income inequality, poverty and high unemployment among the youth.
There is also a slow pace of affordable urban land delivery for housing and business development in the region.
“It is a challenge in the sense that our people cannot afford both residential and business properties on the market,” said Irimari.
Equally, there are legal limitations and loopholes in the current compensation policy guidelines leading to numerous land compensation disputes at local authorities.
There is further limited access to non-collateral finances for Small and Medium Enterprises in the region.
Moving forward, the council has tasked local authorities to address youth challenges through local economic development initiatives.
It is further recommended that the compensation policy be replaced with an Act of Parliament “Expropriation and Compensation Act.