Aroab council tackles shack sprawling

The Aroab Village Council in the ||Kharas region requires newcomers needing accomodation to erect their shacks in a designated reception area established by the council.

Aroab Village is home to about 2 000 residents.

Council chairperson Willem Assegaai says the establishment of a reception area enables the council to address the sprawling of shacks and informal settlements in and around the village. The reception area comes with basic municipal services installed such as water and reticulation services.

Assegaai made the remarks during a visit by the parliamentary standing committee on urban and rural development and land reform on Tuesday.

“We experienced an influx of people during the Covid-19 pandemic where so many farmworkers were retrenched from nearby farms.

“Noticing the needs of the people and our role to ensure proper land and village administration, the council decided to allocate plots on a temporary basis in the reception area to landless residents. The residents pay a monthly fee of N$50. At the same time we are continuing work to fully formalise the area,” said Assegaai.

The reception area is divided into 150 plots Assegaai said, adding that the council and the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development negotiated and agreed to an amount of N$3 million for the development of the area.

He said the council paid N$1.3 million for the design to start with electricity, water and sewerage.

“We also constructed over 100 houses for low-income earners under the government’s Build Together Programme,” said the chairperson.

The council plans to transfer council-owned social houses, currently occupied by residents under lease agreements, to the residents. Residents pay rent of N$100 for a one-bedroom social house and N$350 for a two-bedroom unit.

Standing committee member Salomon April said the arrangement, the manner in which the reception area is organised and basic services provided gives a sense of dignity to the people.

“You feel different, not absolutely lost and forgotten. I think that is the story for me to tell, as I go from Aroab to other places. Go to Aroab and see, the informal settlement is equally organised and arranged like the formal settlement, I will tell them.”

Standing committee chairperson Eliphas Dingara said the introduction of the reception area is a proactive step towards orderly urban development.

Dingara urged other local authorities experiencing land grabbing and illegal land occupation that disrupts town planning, budgeting and the provision of services to adopt a similar approach that balances community needs with sustainable urban planning.

“If there are other towns doing what Aroab is doing, come and tell us, so we can go and see. We have seen this only at Aroab. The City of Windhoek unfortunately, I must say, must come and learn from these people. They must come to Aroab and learn because these people are showing that they are responsible for their land,” said Dingara.

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