Informal settlement programme to build over 800 houses at Swakopmund

OVER 800 informal houses in Swakopmund are set to be upgraded.

This is to be done through the national Informal Settlement Upgrading Project (ISUP) of the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) and the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development.

While speaking during the commencement of the ISUP on Friday, minister of urban and rural development Erastus Uutoni told residents of the DRC informal settlement at Swakopmund that housing remains a cornerstone of economic emancipation.

“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 availed resources to the tune of N$700 million.

“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.

Uutoni said the Swakopmund Municipality has identified and availed 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 the line ministry and devised measures to address the mushrooming of informal structures in Windhoek’s informal settlement areas and this collaboration has yielded immediate results with the construction of more than 750 housing units.