Over 800 houses to be built at Swakopmund informal settlement

Over 800 informal houses at Swakopmund are set to be upgraded through the national Informal Settlement Upgrading Project (ISUP) of the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) and the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development.

While speaking at the commencement of the ISUP on Friday, development minister Erastus Uutoni told residents of the DRC informal settlement at Swakopmund that housing remains a cornerstone of economic emancipation and, therefore, resources from the government must be utilised efficiently and effectively to benefit more Namibians.

“I am convinced that the national ISUP will fuel a significant flow in the government’s unyielding passion to addressing and reducing the national housing backlog in the country and, in turn, create and propel tangible opportunities for sustainable economic growth and socio-economic empowerment,” he said.

Uutoni said since the project was first launched as a pilot in 2020, the government has made N$700 million worth of resources available.

“A huge chunk of this amount has since been geared towards the social progression pillar of the Harambee Prosperity Plan to aid incremental land servicing and the upgrading of informal settlements.

“Our government, through the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, will continue to invest in housing interventions with a realisation through deliberate and targeted interventions such as the National Housing Policy, the Harambee Prosperity Plan, National Development Goals and Vision 2030,” Uutoni said.

He said the Swakopmund municipality has identified 803 plots for this project, with phase one earmarked to develop 233 houses.

“This is certainly a timely intervention which comes at a time when most of our residents in areas such as DRC are yearning for decent houses. I, therefore, wish to commend both the NHE and the Municipality of Swakopmund for having prioritised this project to the extent that we are ready to start with construction,” he said.

The minister said since the inception of the programme in the Khomas region, NHE, the City of Windhoek, and the Khomas Regional Council joined hands with the line ministry and devised measures to address the mushrooming of informal structures in Windhoek’s informal settlement areas.

He said this collaboration has yielded immediate results with the construction of more than 750 housing units. That success has paved the way for the pilot project to be rolled out on a national scale.