The Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform Ministry brought together management from all 14 regions to review major activities and performance in the first quarter of this financial year.

Ministry officials are gathered at Oshakati for a week-long annual work plan and management workshop, ending on Friday.

The objective is to review what has been done in the first quarter to improve service delivery. Issues to be discussed include performance-related matters, challenges encountered, and how they can be resolved.

In his welcoming remarks, Oshana Governor Elia Irimari called on the ministry to re-open the Eloolo abattoir at Oshakati and also look at the issue of land grabbing, which is on the increase.

"Efforts have been made from the government, mostly from the ministry, mostly from the ED, to ensure that this abattoir comes into operation, but as a result of human conflict, this project is still idle; nothing is happening, and it can offer employment and also change the livelihood of our communities."

In response, the Executive Director of the Ministry, Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata, said they will do everything possible to reopen the abattoir and have initiated a process to terminate the leasing agreement with the current operator. The process is now subject to arbitration. 

She also touched on the issue of land grabbing, which was raised by the governor.

"In this quarter alone, we have registered 14 lease agreements for those who have been resettled and a total of 180 customary land rights, and I want to pause here to say what the governor said when we registered this land: we need to take care of land grabbing. You don't register what has been grabbed, and we need to remove these fences. The future will not be sustainable if communities have nowhere to graze their small livestock."

On rural water supply, she said households with access to potable water countrywide are estimated at 91.75% for the current financial year.

She says her ministry has constructed 12 new earth dams for water harvesting. 

Five were constructed in Ohangwena, four in Oshana, two in Kavango West, and one in the Hard Region.

The ministry has also constructed 94 sanitation facilities; 88 were built at Oshikoto, four in the Oshana Region, and two in Kavango East.

The ministry has further constructed three new pipelines and rehabilitated another three short pipelines, while 47 existing water points were rehabilitated and 34 boreholes were cleaned.

They also connected 815 private off-takes, drilled 146 new boreholes, and installed 82 newly drilled boreholes.