Walvis Bay Mayor Trevino Forbes is adamant that Green Valley also known as Farm 37 will become the answer to the town’s serious land issue.

Forbes while addressing a press conference on Friday here said some work has been done in the area but due to a lack of sufficient funds, priority is being directed to the most important services for now.

“Farm 37 is the answer to our shack problem in Walvis Bay and although it has been a long time coming, it will materialise as not only will it cater for ultra-low-cost housing but also for middle-income houses as well as businesses,” he stated.

The municipality had in March 2022 issued a notice to all residents living in illegal structures to remove them or risk facing consequences of the law, however, this was not possible as there was no land available for these landless residents to move to.

The municipality, therefore, made it a priority to avail and service two portions at Farm 37 to which these residents could be relocated to.

“We decided that removing people living in illegal structures would not have made any sense if we did not provide land for them to relocate to, as a result, it would just have created more problems.

These are also our residents and we need to take care of them,” the mayor explained.

Forbes noted that communal facilities in the area are ready saying, council wants to first engage residents who will be allocated there, show them what has been done there and find whether they would be willing to live with what is currently available in the area or whether they will wait and give council more time to bring in proper services before they relocate.

“I have had meetings with Erongo Red for the supply of electricity as well as fishing and mining companies to come on board and assist the council by sharing costs in delivering bulk services to our landless residents,” he said, adding that the servicing of land is expensive and the municipality needs all the assistance it can get.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency