Mayor blames Nored for Rundu's dark streets

Rundu mayor Andreas Jikerwa has accused the Northern Regional Electricity Distributor (Nored) of failing to maintain the town’s street lights, saying widespread neglect has left most streets in darkness and compromised residents’ safety.

In an interview with Namibian Sun, Jikerwa said “something went wrong” with the maintenance of existing street lights, accusing Nored of failing to carry out even basic upkeep such as replacing bulbs.

“When looking at all the streets, they are dark,” Jikerwa said.

“It is the responsibility of Nored to maintain what is there already, specifically street lights.”

The mayor said some newly erected lamp poles have also been left incomplete or vandalised, with missing wiring and non-functional lights contributing to deteriorating conditions across the town.

“There are some new poles which were erected and it seems like they are abandoned. Even the wires are cut out,” he said.

Unsafe residents

Jikerwa linked the poor state of street lamps to growing security concerns, saying residents who travel at night are particularly vulnerable.

“Any town or location needs street lights because this is something which is going to help people for security purposes, especially when people are walking during the night, going to work or knocking off from work,” he said.

He said the town council has received assurances from Nored that work on the long-awaited street light project will resume between August and September.

The electrification project will cover several residential areas, including Kaisosi, Kasote, Ndama, Sun City, Tuhingireni and Kehemu.

Water and roads

Beyond electrification, the mayor highlighted several infrastructure projects aimed at addressing long-standing service delivery challenges in the town.

He said road rehabilitation works to address severe erosion in Queen’s Park residential area are progressing well, with the contractor expected to reopen sections of the affected roads by the end of June or early July.

"They are busy working on it,” he said.

Jikerwa also pointed to a major water infrastructure project involving the construction of reservoirs and water towers in Ndama and Sun City, which he believes will help end recurring water shortages.

The project, which will draw water from 21 boreholes stretching from Ndama to Ngwangwa, is expected to increase storage capacity and reduce the town’s reliance on NamWater.

“Currently, if there is a problem with NamWater’s reservoirs, we only have water in the pipes,” he said, adding that it will bring much-needed "relief because the town council will have its own reservoirs".

Jikerwa said the project’s invoices have already been submitted and construction is expected to begin soon.

Pay your bills

The mayor, however, stressed that the success of infrastructure development efforts depends heavily on residents settling their municipal accounts.

He urged residents to take advantage of the town council’s debt-relief programme, which allows debtors to pay their outstanding capital amounts while accumulated interest is written off.

“Our service delivery is based on revenue collection,” he said.

“If people are not attending to their bills, then the town council will not have anything in its coffers to provide services.”

Efforts to obtain comment from Nored on street light maintenance proved futile, despite the distributor acknowledging the query two weeks ago.