19 Jun 2019

North West District Council (NWDC) recently took its services to Shakawe through an open day initiative.

Departments took advantage of the event to interact with the communities and share their mandates.

The occasion was also meant to appreciate customer feedback on council services.

Speaking at the event, Okavango MP, Mr Bagalatia Arone, commended NWDC for the initiative, noting that councils were a foundation for rural economic development.

Mr Arone also noted that opening a service centre in Shakawe last year was a commendable move since it reduced the travel distance between Shakawe catchment area and offices in Gumare. 

He said it was mandatory for NWDC to improve the quality of life for all through effective and efficient delivery of basic infrastructure and social services in partnership with stakeholders.

“Consequently, this kind of event is meant to improve and strengthen the mutual relationship between the organisation and its stakeholders. Stakeholders in this case refers to everyone who gets the services from the council,” said the MP.

Mr Arone said Okavango Sub- district continued to benefit from the constituency community projects, which was geared towards employment creation and at the same time addressing infrastructural development challenges.

He noted that for the 2017/2018 financial year, the sub-district was implementing 62 projects to the tune of P15 million and expenditure to date stood at about P10 million, while 40 projects were completed and 22 are at various completion stages.

In 2018/2019, Mr Arone said 52 projects were implemented to the tune of P16 million and nine projects were completed, 32 are at various stages while 11 were not yet started due to various reasons, including change of projects by the community, non-performance by artisans, shortage of artisans within the sub district and unavailability of building materials within the sub-district. 

The MP further noted that procurement was ongoing for 2019/2020 projects, while since inception of the programme, 221 people were employed.

NWDC acting council secretary, Mr Gobe Mudongo said North West district was vast, hence they saw it fit to bring services nearer to the people through the open day.

He said in the near future, Shakawe would have a Rural Administration Centre just like Gumare and this would have addressed the issue of travelling long distances to access some council services. Ends