The Municipality of Walvis Bay has signed a N$250-million agreement with the Roads Authority (RA) and the Road Fund Administration (RFA) for a road rehabilitation project.
The project will be implemented in three phases over a five-year period.
The RA will be responsible for the overall project management, with funds provided by the RFA.
The contractor of the project is Otesa Civil Engineering, while Tulipamwe Consulting Engineers will be responsible for its supervision.
Construction activities are due to create about 120 temporary jobs across all three phases.
A number of the town’s streets are currently in extremely poor condition and over-trafficked.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, works and transport deputy minister Veikko Nekundi said this is not good for the town’s growing economy.
“The deteriorated condition of the road infrastructure at Walvis Bay and its reduced level of service has the potential of diverting regional commercial traffic to competing ports in neighbouring Angola and South Africa, or even Mozambique.
This would undermine the national goal of promoting the national road corridors and logistical hub ideals as enshrined in Namibia’s Vision 2030, as part of strengthening the Namibian trading position regionally and globally.”
Nekundi said diverted trade due to the deteriorated condition of road infrastructure would further hurt the fragile economy and Namibians livelihoods.
“And we cannot let this happen,” he said.
The partnership between the three parties began in May 2023 with teams ensuring and completing proper detailed design.
Priority was given to determining how many roads will be rehabilitated, resealed and maintained.
Phase two and three are currently going through the procurement process.
RFA chief executive Ali Ipinge reminded road users of their duty to contribute towards the maintenance and rehabilitation of national roads, and to local authorities.
He said maintaining roads is a costly exercise and funding from road users contributes to things like port infrastructure in the Erongo region.
“At beginning of the year, we asked for a N$1 increase in the fuel levy to support the effective maintenance of our roads.
That roughly translates to an additional N$1 billion to the road fund to do the work that we are trying to do.
People said it is a lot, but to effectively maintain our national urban roads and streets, we need about N$5 billion per annum.
“We are only generating about N$3.5 billion. There is a massive shortfall in terms of the needs that we have to cover.
An increase of road user charges by 25 cents per litre was granted two weeks ago, and I am already hearing that that money is going to waste. Should we then do nothing?” he asked.
He said goods imported and exported should travel with ease through the port of Walvis Bay by truck, while road users in the area should enjoy the comfort of driving on well-maintained roads.
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