Namibian Sun

The Khorixas town council plans to spend its development budget of N$13 860 000 for the 2020/21 financial year on priority areas such as servicing land, the council's chief executive officer, Andreas Howoseb has said.

This money forms part of its capital budget of N$ 63 548 887. Howoseb mentioned that priority areas amongst others include the construction of service infrastructure and servicing of land.

The town council will also prioritise the employment of unemployed youths at the capital projects during the current financial year to tackle the issue of unemployment being experienced at the town,” he said.

Howoseb said unemployment has increased due to a lack of tourism caused by the Coronavirus pandemic as most inhabitants depend on the income from tourism activities.

As Covid-19 is expected to be around for some time, local authorities were tasked to provide water to the residents in order to mitigate the impact. As a result, the council has utilised resources for this call that were planned for other purposes, Howoseb added.

“This call required realignment, recapitalisation and refocusing on sectors that were negatively affected by the pandemic. Provision of water will continue to be critical as we move forward.

The second aspect is sanitation, which is critical in ensuring the good health of the residents. Both these essentials do not come cheap,” he said.

Howoseb added that there has also been a reduction in the capital budget allocation, which means that achieving envisages goals of the development budget will be slower due to financial shortages.

“One has to have an understanding of this because the priorities of the government are also affected by the pandemic and the need to keep the population safe,” said Howoseb. - Nampa