The Walvis Bay Municipality is reserving 33 hectares of land at Farm 37 for the town's Backyard Tenants Group.

This comes in the wake of the group's petition, handed over to the municipality in February this year.

Farm 37, better known among residents as Green Valley, was officially proclaimed a new township, following Narraville, which was established 61 years ago.
 
Situated about nine kilometres east of Walvis Bay, the new suburb has a potential population of about 30,000 inhabitants.
 
Many people migrate from urban to rural areas in search of greener pastures and for the betterment of their livelihoods, but that hope is not always fulfilled.
 
Thousands have ended up in the town's shanty houses, which are in many cases underbuilt with discarded materials and have limited access to basic services such as water, electricity, or toilets.
 
It is against this backdrop that some concerned residents formed the Backyard Tenants Group to boost their voice in fighting for land.
 
The group handed over a petition to the Walvis Bay Municipality Council that was supported by over 2,000 residents.

"Based on the conditions set by the council, we are required to formalise our group; in that, we invited all those who took part in the petition held on February 27, 2023, and or supported the petition, as well as those who formed part of the backyard tenants group, to show interest in continuing with the fight by contributing a N$100 non-refundable fee towards our administration, activities such as adding members to our database, and formalising our membership databases," the group spokesperson said.

Given that the land is yet unserviced, undeveloped, and unserved, the group is required to attend all future meetings concerning it to be conducted by the council.

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Stefan |Uirab