By Frederick Philander MARIENTAL Poverty and unemployment are the two biggest social problems constantly plagueing the people in the Hardap Region in the south of the country. This is the expert view of Barakias Namwandi, a ruling party regional councillor for the Mariental Urban Constituency with 3ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 registered voters. “The current unemployment rate in the constituency is 60 percent due to regular retrenchments and dismissals of farm workers since 1992. These unemployed people all come to Mariental and squat in the informal settlements in and around the town, exacerbating the housing problem in the town,” said a concerned Namwandi in a New Era interview on Friday. The Build Together project of the local authority is basically the only way out for the inhabitants as far as housing is concerned. “To try and create jobs I last year embarked on a macro-economic project to try and provide employment with an amount of N$200ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 from the Hardap Regional Council. Thirty people have thus far benefited from the project, which is running according to plan. I am very happy about the project because people are beginning to sustain themselves economically,” the councillor said. Another project aimed at providing employment is the Food-and-Cash-for-Work government venture. “More than 30 people are actively involved in the Cash-for-Work section of the project and 17 in the Food-for-Work section. These people are currently engaged in a clean-up operation of a dam in the area. The people working for cash are involved in removing the town’s cemetery to a new site, which they are currently de-bushing. They will also set up a fence at the new cemetery,” Namwandi said. According to him, a vegetable-cultivating project in the Voightsgrund area could become the biggest job-providing effort in the constituency. “An estimated 500 people will eventually be employed in the N$7-million project. Some local people have already started de-bushing the area and others are in the process of building a water canal. This work opportunity opened up after a large number of ex-Plan fighters left the area to be absorbed in the security services of the country,” the former railway worker councillor from the North said. Namwandi also works tirelessly and very closely with a development committee that was established to provide for the multiple needs of his struggling constituency. “The committee has strongly recommended the building of an open market where small business people can rent stalls to do business in order to sustain themselves. This is a much-needed project for which donor funding is currently being sought,” said Namwandi, who is optimistic that the committee will raise the necessary funding to erect the building in the near future. It is envisaged that a youth centre costing N$3,3-million will also be built at Mariental later this year. “We are also working on a grape-cultivating project on the outskirts of the town. This project should eventually provide work for approximately 200 unemployed people, a welcome effort to help the destitute in the community to find work. These projects are all aimed at reducing the spiral of poverty and unemployment in my constituency,” Namwandi concluded.