The Municipality of Walvis Bay is looking at several strategies to decongest the suburb of Kuisebmund and reduce the risk of shack fires. This includes the introduction of rates and taxes for each shack on allocated plots.

Backyard shacks have become a source of income for the residents who rent them out, but they are also a source of despair for tenants when fires break out.

The mushrooming of shacks in the informal settlements has also, in recent years, been a headache for the municipality.

Affected residents of Otjiwarongo's Single Quarters, who face mounting pressure from the Otjiwarongo Municipality to vacate their units as part of a decongestion plan, have taken to the streets of the town to air their dissatisfaction with the local authority's response to two previous petitions handed over this year.

Group spokesperson Irene Uushona says residents demand that the council look into writing off some N$1.5 million in debt owed by unit occupants.

Residents living in the Otjiwarongo Single Quarters are still at loggerheads with the municipality over the implementation of the decongestion plan.

Since the beginning of the year, residents and the council have been at loggerheads, following a  decision to decongest the overcrowded single-quarters units in the town.

The plans to decongest the units means improving the living conditions of residents by relocating them to either the Kamp 5 or Saamstaan settlements.