Okahandja no longer a Garden Town

OKAHANDJA residents are unhappy with the cleanliness of their town, saying that litter is becoming a health hazard.
They accuse the Town Council of doing nothing to rectify the situation while the town is slowly being buried under litter.

That the town is dirty is a fact. Especially in the Nau-Aib township, heaps of refuse can be seen on almost every street corner. ‘Please expose this rubbish for the outside world to see,’ said two women walking past while The Namibian was taking pictures of the refuse heaps that have become a permanent fixture in the lives of the residents.The Council’s Chief Executive Officer, Regina Alugodhi, said the town’s cleanliness was a concern to the Council and that it was trying its level best to do something about it. Alugodhi said until January this year the Council did not have the necessary equipment to clean up the town. Some equipment was acquired in January, including a front-loader, and the clean-up has started, she said.She said household refuse removal was done once a week and the refuse removal team was working in a different section of the town every day.Alugodhi blamed the fast pace of urbanisation for problems with service delivery, saying that the town’s population was growing by the day. She urged residents to help clean up the town, since they were the ones who had littered in the first place.The cleanliness of the town was one of the issues residents mentioned when they voted for a new regional councillor last week.Many of them are hoping that the new regional councillor, Steve Biko Booys, will be able to push the town Council to work harder to clean up Okahandja.