The increasing use of drugs and alcohol, especially among teenagers, has become a serious concern for residents of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund in the Erongo Region.

This was shared during the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Social Development, and Family Affairs consultations on gender-based violence and femicide in the towns.

Committee chairperson Gotthard Kasuto says consultations follow a petition in 2020 by the Shut It All Down Movement to Parliament seeking an end to sexual violence and femicide.

Governor Neville Andre is encouraging residents of the Erongo Region to participate and cooperate with Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) field workers in giving them complete and accurate data.

Andre added that census data plays a crucial role in decision-making across a wide range of fields and is a fundamental tool for understanding the characteristics of a population.

The public is further assured that data collected during the Census period is always anonymous and encrypted and will be used only for statistical purposes.