More than 4,000 people are currently on the Keetmanshoop Town Council housing waiting list.

The town's acting CEO, Cathy Boois, revealed this at the pre-allocation of plots in the Kronlein residential area.

Boois says the huge housing backlog has prompted the council's decision to pre-allocate 150 unserviced, unsurveyed, and unplanned plots to landless residents.

Only residents who are on the housing waiting lists are eligible for the pre-allocation of plots.

Backyard squatters at the Oudeline houses will also be prioritised.

The State's eye clinic at Windhoek Central Hospital currently has about 1300 people on its waiting list for cataract surgery.

Only four eye specialists are employed by the state, with two based in the north, while the other two are in Windhoek.

Sight restoration is a mission that is easy, but it can be harder, owing to insufficient and readily available resources to perform surgery.

Ophthalmologist Dr Ernst van der Merwe is one of those who has been restoring the hope of the blind and he tells us, the road has been bumpy.