The City of Windhoek says plans to formalise informal settlements could yield about 11 226 erven, with 3 587 erven forming the first phase.
City chief executive Moses Matyai on Saturday said the land-use planning process for informal settlements will be fast-tracked and completed to meet the national targets and improve residents’ livelihoods.
He said consultations for flood studies have already been appointed and are currently identifying areas where studies are required before permanent structures can be recommended.
“It emerged that one of the lengthy processes that has impeded fast town development planning is the requirement for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and flood studies due to the mountainous landscape that requires flood study for future mitigations,” he said.
The process is part of the city’s efforts to fast-track township development planning in informal areas as they continue to expand across the capital.
Matyai said there are 20 informal settlement areas that require EIAs for submission to the environmental commissioner.
He added that an internal environmental consultant has been assigned since December 2025 to work on these EIAs with speed and has now finalised five scoping studies, which must be consulted upon for comments as required by the Environmental Management Act.
“Failure to complete these processes could result in township establishment applications being rejected by the urban and regional planning board under the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development,” he said.
He noted that the municipality council has approved the Universal Access to Electrify project aimed at expanding electricity access in informal settlements.
“Hence, we will be using the draft town development plans to provide or electrify connections to households in the informal areas as part of our enabling process for access to basic services in the peri-urban areas,” Matyai said.
He said the electrification process is expected to begin within the next one to two months.
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