Otavi Town Council has dismissed claims that contractors have abandoned the sewer and reticulation works at New Cairo informal settlement, where trenches have been left open for some time now.

The acting Chief Executive Officer, Heita Shikeenga, explained that the completion of construction works was delayed because of the unavailability of funds and rocky terrain.

New Cairo is an informal area where people who were residing at the former single-quarter units had been relocated to pave the way for development.

The council started with Phase One, comprising water and sanitation pipeline installation, last year, and the project is now in Phase Two.

"As we are speaking, 80% of the project is completed, 90% for the water and 70% for the sewer. There were project delays, like I said, in terms of the excavation, as well as the rainfalls. The second issue was that the payment to this company had been delayed. Imagine the project started in April, but then the ministry only released funds towards the end of January."

Shikeenga explained the trenches will, for now, remain half-filled as the project enters the testing phase with the same contractor.

"You don't close the trenches completely after laying the pipelines; you fill them a bit, then reticulate all the pipelines and test them. The testing phase means that you need to now pump water into the system to see if there are any leakages that you're going to experience in the lines. If there are any leakages, they should be easily detectable because the trenches have not been filled completely, but addressing these issues may incur additional costs."

The council is appealing to the community to be patient.