The Ongwediva Town Council has approved a budget of over N$205 million to improve service provision to the residents.
The budget allocation for 2025/26 prioritises housing, sanitation, land delivery, agriculture, sport, youth empowerment, health, and social welfare, among others.
The largest chunk of the budget has been allocated to key capital projects at a tune of N$57.9 million.
These include the construction of a sports stadium at Elyambala, a state-of-the-art recreational park at the town's luxury suburb extension 11, the upgrade of Abraham Nyambali Street road to bitumen standard, the upgrade of the Ongwediva open market, and the construction and upgrade of various stormwater channels in both formal and informal settlements.
An additional N$46 million is allocated towards land delivery, construction of social amenities, rehabilitation and upgrading of infrastructure, acquisition of machinery, and compensation to residents who made way for development.
"All capital projects that I have highlighted above constitute a significant portion of the budget, amounting to N$57.9 million and representing about 28.2% of the budget. Furthermore, it should be noted that the budget for capital projects increased by a mere 1% from the previous year," said Mayor Taarah Shalyefu.
The Council has also adopted a multi-faceted approach, which includes the allocation of 275 unserviced erven to the National Housing Enterprises and undeveloped land with a capacity of 200 medium-sized erven to the Development Workshop of Namibia.
75 unserviced and partially serviced erven go to various property developers, including the Shack Dwellers Federation, with an allocation of approximately 150 erven.
N$46 million has been set aside for the provision of infrastructure such as sewer reticulation at extensions 1 and 3, a prepaid water network system pilot project and electricity.
"All these provisions of services, stormwater channels and allocation of erven to our residents are a true demonstration of the commitment that we have made, including a decision that we have made of not increasing tariffs for the past five years just to demonstrate that we are very serious and we have taken note of the economic downturn."
The town is home to over 20,000 residents.