Day: July 30, 2024

WINDHOEK: Leader of the official opposition, McHenry Venaani, has urged President Nangolo Mbumba to promptly establish a water commission.

Venaani, addressing the media on Monday, said the commission will have the mandate to provide guidance on the management and utilisation of water resources.

‘This commission ought to be mandated to oversee the comprehensive management of our water resources and promote conservation efforts by providing a forum for collaboration and integration of the different water interests of the major stakeholders involved in the water sector. It is crucial for safeguarding our agricultural sector, ensuring food security, and supporting Namibia’s overall economic growth. This is important to ensure Namibia does not regress into a water-stressed nation,’ he said.

Venaani said a Namibian Water Commission would not only ensure resource conservation and the management of water resources, ensuring its efficient and equitable use, it would also facilitate a coordinated response to water s
hortages, including drought management and emergency relief efforts, and support research into sustainable water practices and technologies.

He further noted that Namibia should learn from other countries like South Africa, which have successfully tackled water challenges by establishing dedicated water commissions.

‘These commissions have played pivotal roles in managing water resources efficiently, mitigating crises, and ensuring sustainable use for generations to come. There is a need for us to rethink our water governance and usage. Accordingly, I call upon President Nangolo Mbumba to take decisive action by establishing a water commission in Namibia,’ he said.

The absence of a water commission is one of the reasons Namibia underutilises water in rivers along its borders, according to Venaani.

‘If you look at the utilisation of the Orange River, South Africa overutilises the Orange River as opposed to the Namibian side. If you look at the Zambezi River, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi are overutilising t
he water basin more than we as a country are. If you look at the Kunene, we are technically doing nothing in Kunene besides the rainwater that falls over Ruacana. If you look at the Kavango, Angola uses more water from Kavango than we are using,’ he said.

Source: The Namibia News Agency

WINDHOEK: The Ministry of Mines and Energy announced on Tuesday that fuel prices for the month of August will remain unchanged.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the ministry’s spokesperson Eshioshange Hasheela said the price of petrol will remain at N.dollars 22.20 per litre, diesel 50 ppm remains at N.dollars 21.57 while diesel 10 ppm remains at N.dollars 21.67.

According to her, there has been a reduction in the shipping and freight costs for vessels bringing oil into the country from international oil markets.

Source: The Namibia News Agency

Deputy Director of Civil Registration in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security, Brandon Boois, has said 2 760 people have received identity documents since the mass registration for national documents started in the ||Kharas Region.

The registration process started on 05 February this year and ends on Wednesday.

Boois shared these statistics during a consultative and information-sharing meeting on the mass registration with various stakeholders on Monday. A total of 761 new identification cards have been issued to individuals who turned 16, while 817 duplicates have been issued since the process started.

‘We issued 195 timely registration birth certificates and 188 late registration birth certificates. We have converted 23 South African identification cards into Namibian identification cards. When the process started, the ministry was targeting to serve at least 50 000 people, and we are standing today at 104 871, so we have doubled what we targeted,’ Boois added.

Deputy Minister
of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security, Lucia Witbooi, said the law to address the issue of undocumented and stateless people will be passed soon, and she hopes that such a law will be passed before the regional and local authority elections next year. Witbooi added that during the mass registration, the ministry collected information and fingerprints of those who are stateless and undocumented to profile them and set up a database.

‘We should also understand that in Namibia, we do not have a law that allows for dual citizenship, so people have to go back to their countries and renounce their citizenship from the country of origin before they can be issued with Namibian citizenship. Everything we do will be within a framework of legislation and only an act of Parliament can address the issue,’ she said.

Witbooi further raised concern over the uncollected identification cards that pile up at the ministry’s offices, urging those who have applied for such documents to collect them. At the Keetmansh
oop office, at least 2 000 identification cards have not been collected.

‘National documents are very important since they contribute to the sense of belonging as well as establish one’s identity. The ministry is urging mothers to register their babies immediately after birth, and fathers, please support the mothers in this regard by providing the necessary information,’ she stressed

Source: The Namibia News Agency