NamWater project at Kalkfeld progressing

Kalkfeld residents said they are happy with how work is progressing on the NamWater project that will channel water from the Rodenhof government resettlement farm to the settlement.

Last month, recruitment for the project was stopped as locals feared they were being sidelined in the process. The recruitment was then finalised through the drawing of numbers, which the locals felt was fair.

NamWater recruited 20 general workers and three machine operators to dig trenches and lay pipes over a distance of 22 kilometres. The project also employed two carpenters, two bricklayers and a clerk.

One of the general labourers, Gerson Geiseb, told Nampa they started working on 13 March and they are satisfied so far. They received their first salaries at the end of March.

The senior office administrator at the settlement, Anna Marrie Kawatomas said there have been no complaints from the workers so far.

“I think everything is going well,” she said.

A NamWater artisan, Dawid Jacobus Booysen, said the project is moving fast and workers are motivated.

“We are expected to dig about 1.2 metres deep and one metre wide for the trench, and also to harden the basement area,” he said.

Booysen explained that about 23 men and eight women are employed at the site.

Kalkfeld was proclaimed a village in 1991, but was downgraded to a settlement in 1996 due to a lack of economic development.

NAMPA