Poor service delivery and a lack of schools for children with disabilities top the list of concerns raised at a recent engagement ||Kharas Governor Aletha Frederick's held with communities of all seven constituencies in the region.

Governor Frederick, during community engagements, assessed challenges as regards service delivery and gauged the communities' aspirations for socio-economic development.

The governor was accompanied by regional heads of government ministries and agencies.

"There are some key issues that were raised in the engagements. Number one is the need to establish a resource school for children with disabilities, and I think that was raised throughout the visits in all the constituencies. Lack of access to agricultural land was one of the issues that were raised for local people, especially at Noordoewer," explained Frederick.

The governor says complaints about poor service delivery and mismanagement of Build Together Housing Programme funds were also raised during the engagements.

"There were also challenges in acquiring resettlement farms in general; concerns about bottlenecks that impact access to agricultural land at Neckartal Dam were also raised; poor service delivery in addressing acute water crises, particularly in Berseba and Karasburg East Constituency, where Rural Water Supply is supplying through the water tank truck to those areas that do not have access to water."

Other concerns raised, says Frederick, are the alleged involvement of some police officers in criminal activities as well as youth unemployment and poverty, which lead to drug and alcohol abuse by some young people. 

Communities were also worried about unending chieftainship succession disputes, which they say hinder socio-economic development.

"The secretariat will compile a report and then all line ministries will come together again. We will look through the report and see and rectify whether it is a true reflection of the discussion that we had in the constituencies, and the line ministers and agencies will be given these concerns. The issues that can be addressed on the regional level, they have to work out a strategy that they will present to the governor and also with time frames. The governor will take the initiative to address these concerns with the relevant line ministers."

Frederick says her office has already started working towards addressing water problems raised during the engagements.

She commended all stakeholders for making the constituency visits a success.