Walvis Bay Rural constituency regional councilor Donatus Tegako says victims of the fire that occurred at Walvis Bay on Friday last week would be allowed to stay longer at the fire site that belongs to the National Housing Enterprise (NHE).
The victims, currently housed in six tents donated by the Walvis Bay Rural constituency office, Namibian Navy and Rooikop military base, were supposed to leave the site on Friday.
Tegako says administration work on the nature of the incident is taking longer than expected and that the victims still need shelter.
“We initially only made a few big tents available. However, more tents from the national disaster risk management team under the Office of the Prime Minister will be added, meaning that they will stay for a few more days or weeks, while officials are busy. The administration process needs to be handled carefully, in order to avoid mistakes. However, this does not mean permanent shelter, as NHE are having plans to build soon,” he says.
NHE communications and marketing manager Mutonga Matali says although plans were under way to start with the construction of houses at the site this month, two or three more weeks of delay would not derail the process.
“We will be engaging stakeholders, especially the municipality, until a long-lasting and amicable solution is found. As an organisation, we sympathise with the victims and send our condolences,” he says.
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