Katima Mulilo: The Katima Mulilo Mayor Town Council has allocated over N.dollars 29 million for capital projects from its approved N.dollars 181.2 million budget for the current financial year, re-elected mayor John Ntemwa has announced. He said with these ‘limited’ approved funds, the council is amongst others focusing on formalising informal settlements such as Dairy, Macaravan West, and Nova.
According to Namibia Press Agency, Ntemwa made the announcement while delivering his ‘State of the Town’ address on Tuesday, when he highlighted key achievements during his 12-month tenure, as well as plans for ongoing urban development. The mayor said 1 206 households in Dairy and 2 500 in Macaravan West are set for formalisation, while the figures for the Nova residential area are yet to be finalised.
To address the town’s housing backlog of 6 000 units, the council has allocated 20 hectares to Novice Business Consultancy to develop affordable housing. Touching on road infrastructure in Katima, he said the council
identified three roads to be upgraded to bitumen standard with the assistance of the Road Fund Administration and Roads Authority. ‘The targeted roads are Muhinda Street, Soweto Road along the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of ICT and Ministry of Education buildings, as well as Hage Geingob Street,’ he said.
The council also completed a master plan for rerouting sewer lines in the Soweto and Bebi residential areas, supported by an additional N.dollars 4 million subsidy from the central government. Ntemwa mentioned lack of serviced land for investors, land grabbing and vandalism of town council infrastructure as being amongst the major challenges that hamper service delivery in Katima Mulilo. ‘Land grabbers have resorted to grabbing land already allocated to investors and this situation has caused investors to be hesitant to invest in Katima Mulilo. Once our boundaries are extended, we are sure the situation will be minimised,’ he said.
Official statistics of 2023 from the Namibia Statistics Agency indicate t
hat Katima Mulilo has over 46 000 inhabitants.
