Opuwo mayor vows to clean up

Opuwo mayor vows to clean upInvestors shun the dirty town Opuwo residents pay for refuse removal, but there are no rubbish bins and the town is too dirty to attract investors. The re-elected mayor of Opuwo, Albert Tjiuma, has admitted that Opuwo is failing to attract investors because it is filthy.

According to Tjiuma, several efforts have been made to lobby investors to do business in the town, but due to the omnipresent filth investors have rejected them.

In an interview with Namibian Sun on Monday after his re-election, Tjiuma said his council''s main priority for the next 12 months was to clean up the town. He said the aim was to make sure that the town looked neat like other towns in the country and was able to attract investors.

“Our town is very dirty and we have not done much in the past to clean it. Garbage is all over the town and there is no proper waste management in place. This keeps investors away as they have refused to do business in a dirty town.

“We have to come up with effective mechanisms to make sure our town is clean and attracts investors who can develop our town and create employment opportunities for our residents,” Tjiuma said.

Tjiuma, who is serving a second term as mayor, said the council had resolved to employ more waste collectors and implement a waste management system.

“Currently residents dump refuse wherever they want because there are no bins in their houses or in the streets. We also need more people to clean this town. We are going to establish a second group of town cleaners who are going to help achieve our mission.” Currently Opuwo has one truck that collects household waste and one company that is contracted for street cleaning.

This issue was raised by the Opuwo Community Concerned Group when they took to streets of Opuwo in June.

The group said the town was very dirty and covered in refuse. The group said in their petition that the town council charged them a lot of money for waste removal, but there were no rubbish bins.

The group also alleged that the town had no public toilets, no tarred roads, no formal open markets and no recreational facilities.

ILENI NANDJATO