THE City of Windhoek has made several offers to residents of the Dolam section in Katutura whose homes were flooded in January, the City’s spokesperson said yesterday.
Ndangi Katoma said they did this through the residents’ legal advisers, the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC). He said the offers were made in an effort to find a permanent solution between the City and the residents.He declined to say what the offers were.But when asked about the statement made by Mayor Mattheus Shikongo in January that the City would compensate the affected residents for the damage they suffered, Katoma was quick to add: “that’s one of them [the offers]”.The LAC’s Evelyne //Naris told The Namibian that one of the offers was for the City to buy the homes.She said the residents were still considering the offers.Meanwhile, Gert Cloete of Windhoek Consulting Engineers (WCE), which recently conducted an on-site survey at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in Katutura to see if the construction of the stadium had caused the flooding, said he expected to finalise his investigation in ten days’ time.Cloete is a hydraulic engineer at WCE, which was contracted by the LAC to determine what led to the flooding of about 14 homes at Dolam.Cloete said he was specifically looking at whether the storm-water culvert that runs underneath the stadium, fed by a river from the Lafrenz industrial area, was the cause of the problem.The LAC approached WCE for an assessment after the City refused to give them its engineers’ and assessors’ reports.The affected families are still living at the Sam Nujoma Stadium.The City has stopped giving the families free meals and free electricity.The City is angry that the people do not want to return to their homes even after they were cleaned.The residents are adamant that they would only move if the City did something to prevent further floods.He said the offers were made in an effort to find a permanent solution between the City and the residents.He declined to say what the offers were.But when asked about the statement made by Mayor Mattheus Shikongo in January that the City would compensate the affected residents for the damage they suffered, Katoma was quick to add: “that’s one of them [the offers]”.The LAC’s Evelyne //Naris told The Namibian that one of the offers was for the City to buy the homes.She said the residents were still considering the offers.Meanwhile, Gert Cloete of Windhoek Consulting Engineers (WCE), which recently conducted an on-site survey at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in Katutura to see if the construction of the stadium had caused the flooding, said he expected to finalise his investigation in ten days’ time.Cloete is a hydraulic engineer at WCE, which was contracted by the LAC to determine what led to the flooding of about 14 homes at Dolam.Cloete said he was specifically looking at whether the storm-water culvert that runs underneath the stadium, fed by a river from the Lafrenz industrial area, was the cause of the problem.The LAC approached WCE for an assessment after the City refused to give them its engineers’ and assessors’ reports.The affected families are still living at the Sam Nujoma Stadium.The City has stopped giving the families free meals and free electricity.The City is angry that the people do not want to return to their homes even after they were cleaned.The residents are adamant that they would only move if the City did something to prevent further floods.
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