President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has called on municipalities to expand water supply and sanitation infrastructure alongside new housing developments, warning that existing bulk infrastructure in many Namibian towns and cities is nearing capacity.
Speaking at a community town hall meeting in Swakopmund, Erongo Region, on Friday, Nandi-Ndaitwah said growing urban populations were placing increasing pressure on municipal water and sewerage systems, raising concerns about their ability to accommodate additional residential developments.
She said the expansion of housing must be accompanied by corresponding investments in bulk infrastructure to ensure that new residential areas have adequate access to water and sanitation services.
“The pressure is already there in most of our municipalities because they were built for a small population and as we stand now the bulk infrastructure almost reached their limit,” she said.
The President warned that municipalities risked creating additional sanitation and public health problems if housing construction continued without sufficient upgrades to existing infrastructure.
“Even when we are talking about housing, I think our municipality first has to know that as we are building houses, how are we going to make sure that we do not create another problem of unhealthy situation if the bulk infrastructures are not able to carry,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
She said municipalities needed to ensure that water supply networks and sewerage systems were expanded to accommodate the additional demand created by new housing developments.
Nandi-Ndaitwah stressed that increasing the number of houses without strengthening supporting infrastructure would place further pressure on municipal services already struggling to meet existing demand.
She said many towns and cities were experiencing population growth beyond the levels originally anticipated when their bulk infrastructure was developed.
As a result, she called for better coordination between housing development and infrastructure investment to ensure that municipalities could accommodate new residential areas without compromising service delivery.
The President also emphasised the importance of adequate sanitation, saying access to proper sanitation facilities was essential to human dignity and improved living conditions.
She warned that housing expansion without sufficient sewerage capacity could worsen sanitation challenges, particularly in rapidly growing urban settlements.
Nandi-Ndaitwah further highlighted the need to strengthen Namibia’s water security to support future residential and economic development.
She identified desalination, technologies capable of extracting water from the atmosphere and cooperation with Angola on water infrastructure as potential measures to expand the country’s water supply.
The President said municipalities needed to plan infrastructure upgrades in line with projected population growth and housing demand rather than allowing residential development to outpace existing services.
She maintained that addressing Namibia’s housing needs would require coordinated investment in water supply, sewerage and sanitation infrastructure to ensure that new developments were adequately serviced.
