RUNDU – Urban and rural development James Sankwasa recently conducted an inspection in Rundu on Thursday, where he addressed the critical sand erosion issue in the Tutungeni area.
The situation in Tutungeni involves severe soil erosion triggered by persistent heavy rainfall, which has created deep trenches threatening homes and leading to the closure of streets in the affected areas of Tutungeni, Queenspark and Sauyemwa.
To address this emergency, the minister provided specific directives to the Rundu Town Council. He advised the council to request assistance from the government through emergency procurement. The council was instructed to initiate emergency procurement by obtaining three quotations from specialised companies experienced in erosion prevention.
“A formal submission must be made through the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance to request permission for this emergency procedure,’’ the minister said, while he emphasised that the solution requires collaboration between his ministry and the Ministry of Finance due to the scale of the damage. “Not one quotation, three quotations for the stormwater drainage system and backfilling of the eroded areas, and it must be thorough; the contractors must not give a quotation and after that come back and say I underquoted. Let’s first deal with the emergency.
This is an emergency, and we must deal with it that way. There’s time to talk, and there’s time for action. We have big construction companies in Namibia, RCC, Nexus, and others; get quotations,” Sankwasa said.
“In terms of Section 28, the regional council has a duty to support the local authority; therefore, I don’t want to hear of money from the regional council being returned to coffers, yet there’s a problem,” he said.
The minister also expressed disappointment over the town’s poor drainage maintenance and the lack of proper planning that exacerbated the crisis. Sankwasa told the Rundu council that they should strengthen their revenue collection services; they should not fear going after government entities and ministries that are in areas, as they know that they need to pay for the services rendered to them by the council.
“Stop saying no, we cannot cut off services because we are cutting off government service. Each ministry has a minister and executive director; they have a budget, and they know that they are going to pay for those services. Let them pay,” he said. “The only time manna fell from heaven was the time of Moses; we don’t have it anymore, and they never fall. We must sit and plan,” he noted.Sankwasa was in Rundu at the invitation of mayor Andreas Jikerwa,
“We are happy that you are here on site. When I toured the area with a contractor, I showed them the old drainage system, which is blocked and needs restoration. We need to combat the problem that has led to this erosion. We will get the quotations as requested,” said Jikerwa. -jmuyamba@nep.com.na
