Windhoek City Targets To Be Sustainable By 2027

By:Leakey Kaxwadi
Windhoek mayor Sade Gawanas says the council is looking forward to a sustainable city by 2027.
Gawanas said this during the sixth Windhoek Mayoral Business Forum (WMBF) which was held on Tuesday under the theme ‘Adapting and innovating into the future’. The forum is a pro-business initiative to strengthen business development through communication, consultations, and the sharing of business ideas, she pointed out.
“One of the focuses is to provide basic services to informal settlements and create more job opportunities through business development in the city,”the mayor said.
“The role of a council is to formulate developmental strategies and host successful projects by sharing communication in the process of the development.”
She added that there are a couple of things that were achieved in the past five years which include electrifying the informal settlements, establishing a call centre for residents to be able to access efficient information, and the developing the GrootAub settlement located about 60 kilometres south of Windhoek.
Namibia Chambers of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) chief executive officer Charity Mwiya said that while the city is allowing the buying of land for building infrastructures, access to land is expensive.
“The matter needs to be looked at seriously,” Mwiya advised. “As a chamber, we believe and are quite supportive in the process of engaging several ministries on policies that are innovative and adapting to the Namibian nation that we want to see,”she said.
Meanwhile, NCCI executive committee member Valme Kruger said that the NCCI and the City of Windhoek must engage businesses to contribute to the economic development of the city.
Speaking at the same event, LEFA transportation founder, Kalipi Aluvilu said his transportation company has improved the lives of many. The company operates passenger trabnsportation services in Windhoek area, to and from Hosea Kutako International Airport as well as transfers to lodges in the city.
“We made it through the challenges of Covid-19. The fuel and vehicle maintenance has always been difficult,”Aluvilu said.
He said that their hope is to help contribute to the city’s economic development with a dream of using more electrified cars as they contribute less to the greenhouse effects.