WALVIS BAY – Frequent shack fires are a constant reminder of the acute housing shortage that Walvis Bay has been grappling with and it also highlights the dire living conditions that shack dwellers live under on a daily basis.
Therefore appropriate shelter should be delivered as a matter of urgency by the Walvis Bay Town Council, according to mayor, Uilika Nambahu. She was speaking during the first council meeting of 2014 that was held in the Kuisebmund municipal chambers on Tuesday afternoon. Nambahu also made reference to the shack fire of early Tuesday morning in Kuisebmund in which a 45-year-old woman was burnt to death and at least 28 people were left homeless. “We are doing everything in our power to address our housing shortage as we want to do away with shacks in our suburbs,” Nambahu informed the gathering. She said the municipality is doing everything in its power to address the housing shortage at the town.
Nambahu last year said the Walvis Bay Town Council is planning to transfer its Tutaleni housing units situated on the outskirts of the town to their current tenants. She said plans are underway to relocate some backyard squatters at the town to another area this year and she also promised that the formalisation of ownership for Tutaleni and the old hostel re-development will also be completed this year. The Tutaleni Housing Project was initiated in 2000 by the Walvis Bay municipality in an effort to curb the growing number of shacks at the town and to move squatters to a hygienic area with basic services. One large area was divided into 289 plots, which in turn were sub- divided into erven no smaller than 300 square metres as prescribed by national legislation. Four housing units were set up on one such plot. The initial idea was that Tutaleni would remain the property of the Walvis Bay municipality and that residents would simply pay rent of N$170 each month. It is estimated approximately 4000 people currently reside in Tutaleni. Also addressing municipal officials and residents during the council meeting the governor of the Erongo Region, Kleophas Mutjavikua urged all town councils and municipalities in the Erongo Region to formulate tangible and workable plans to address the housing situation.
“We should make a strategic shift to address this social evil head-on. We also need to come up with a way forward for our mass housing programme. The plan has been supplied, but how are we going to liaise with the Ministry of Regional, Local Government, Housing and Rural Development?” he asked. He further said municipalities and town councils should ensure that land is serviced and that the issue of informal settlements is dealt with. “As long as we have the Tutaleni and the Democratic Resettlement Community (DRC) we can expect that our people will continue to die in shack fires,” he warned.
By Eveline de Klerk