The City of Windhoek Councillor Ivan Skrywer says the city is ready to relocate those affected by the flash flood to Farm 508 behind the Goreangab Informal Settlement. Councillor Skrywer described the findings of the flood assessment as disturbing, pointing to the seriousness of the flood situation.

He said Farm 508, situated behind Okapale in the area of Goreagab, can house up to 100 households.

"We are experiencing this flash flooding like never before, and what we as a council are trying to communicate is that I have already spoken to the office of the constituency councillor, Councillor Sem, where we can engage the CDCs and various constituencies, especially the people of Otjomuise here behind us that have been affected, so that we can engage them to pursue our people to urge them to move because there is a standing resolution where we can move those affected households to an area behind Okapale Farm 508 where we have a "Reception Area Through Control Entry" program, so there is a solution."

He added that households who are willing to relocate from Otjomuise or any other area affected by the flood will be assisted. 

"The issue of relocating people is not an easy one, as people are used to staying here, and you have reasons like the clinic is close by, my child is schooling here, and as a leader and as a person facilitating this relocation, we need to put everything on a scale, as we are tampering with people's lifestyles, but at the same time, it's dangerous, so we are in between here, but on our part and that of the city of Windhoek, we are urging people to really avail themselves and move because this is not the normal rainy season we are used to where we know we can make it through. It's not normal; global warming is real; it's affecting us, and we are urging our people."

The project, he says, is being implemented by the Division of Human Settlement in the Department of Housing, Property Management, and Human Settlement, under the full mandate of the Council.

He says in the long term, there is a need to re-evaluate some residential areas to be able to withstand flash floods in the future. 

"One of the things that was very evident on the ground was the engineering planning. Some of the houses were planned way back, and what we are saying in this situation is we need all hands on deck, including the engineering department, to go on the ground also for them to assess the situation on the ground. Another suggestion is once we get certain people to move, we will fence off that area to stop people from moving in."

Skrywer, who was part of the assessment team, says they have also, through the city police, cordoned off some of the roads in the Goreangab area due to the rising water levels. 

"Just on the other side of Goreangab, there by a riverbed, there was no rain at that moment, but you could see that at the moment the water was rising because of the catchment areas somewhere else. So we spoke to city police to block off that road for now because we don't know what might happen at night because during the day it's okay. So far no life has been lost; we thank God, but we cannot sit back and relax. As you can see, the rain is building up, so we need to encourage and urge our people to avail themselves and allow them to be relocated."

 Of the 282 households affected, eight houses were completely washed away. 

Preparations to clear and prepare farm 508 are underway, and temporary shelters will be provided. 

In addition, the city is engaged in an ongoing effort to clear riverbeds to reduce the risk of future flooding.