Republikein Newspaper

The construction activities on a multipurpose open market at Otjiwarongo is a top priority of the municipality this year.

The chairperson of the Otjiwarongo municipality’s management committee, Hilda Jesaja, last week tabled a budget of nearly N$143 million for the 2020/21 financial year, where she outlined the municipality’s plans to start with the phase one construction related activities of a public market.

The open market project includes construction of taxi ranks for long and short-distance terminals, and public toilets at a site adjacent to the proposed market area.

“Over the years, Council worked hard to create a conducive environment for street vendors and hawkers around town, but these efforts faced a stumbling block of no open market at the town to accommodate them,” said Jesaja.

The municipality is determined to this year complete all the consultancy services for this phase one stage of the market project, she said.

The consultant to be appointed is expected to deliver the engineering designs, provide a bill of quantities for the architectural concept designs and also to render all the technical supervision for the construction part on the market, she said.

“In order to achieve this, we propose a budget appropriation of N$5 million,” Jesaja said.

Housing

She further stated that the municipality intends to spend over N$7 million in consultation fees and surveying of town land portions and formalisation of various residential and industrial areas at the town.

The formalisation of the Eie Risiko informal settlement in Ombili into 14 residential areas, DRC and Tsaraxa Aibes informal settlements into seven residential suburbs, Otjiwarongo’s Extension 11 into 43 industrial plots, Orwetoveni Extension 4 and Extension 14 portions of land into 182 and 324 erven are all included in this budget plan, she said.

Jesaja noted that the municipality also earmarked some new residential plots at Otjiwarongo Extension 19 and 20 - each suburb with a total number of 328 erven.

A total N$10 million was proposed for the repairing of Henk Willems Street, construction of a culvert crossing at Extension 6 residential area and for consultancy purposes on the sewage masterplan for Otjiwarongo.

The municipality’s proposed budget was approved by the local authority councillors here on Thursday, but it still has to be forwarded to the ministry of urban and rural development for final approval and endorsement before it is implemented. – Nampa