The Ministry of Works and Transport has awarded a N$6.4 million contract to the Namibian Engineering Corporation for the restoration of the industrial electrical geyser water heating system at the Windhoek Central Hospital.

The restoration was proposed after President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah's recent visit to the hospital along with her delegation of ministers, where they assessed the condition of the hospital and its operations.

Minister of Works and Transport Veikko Nekundi was given the directive by the president to hire a contractor for the restoration of the industrial electrical geysers water heating system.

The hospital has been operating without hot water for over a decade, which the minister says is unacceptable, as the health sector is one of the most important priorities in government.

He further urged the staff not to shy away from reaching out to his office when they are faced by challenges such as these, adding that he was unaware of such an issue and would not have known had they not made the visit.

Chief Executive Officer at Namibia Engineering, Joring von Gossler, says they have already done an inspection on the geysers and have evaluated the costs for the reparations, including parts needed for the restoration.

The hospital has about 14 centralised water systems, which are meant to supply hot water to the theatre, kitchen, laundry, and the rest of the hospital.

"We had to do the analysis; we had to do the assessment to come up with a restoration pricing, which included the first and the second phases, which are exactly as discussed. The first phase is to repair as much as we can to get hot water back into the system. We are hoping to get that done within the next two weeks. And afterwards is the restoration of the system, which at this stage is a set of 14 centralised hot water systems that need to be repaired."

Von Gossler also suggested that a maintenance agreement be established for inspection to be done at least once a year to ensure that systems are operating smoothly over the years.

He says they are confident that the restoration process will be complete in the next two months.