The Katima Mulilo Town Council needs at least N$250 million to upgrade its sewer system which can no longer cater for the town’s 40 000 residents. In an interview with NAMPA, chief executive officer (CEO) Raphael Liswaniso said the town’s current sewerage system was meant to cater for only 4 000 people and that Namibia’s ailing economy, which has seen the government’s subsidy towards local authorities dwindle, has not helped the situation. He said the town is faced with an avalanche of challenges and projects such as the upgrading of the town’s roads to bitumen standard are on the cards “but we have a problem with funding” and have not received any government subsidy for the last two financial years due to budget cuts from central government. For all the town’s competing demands, the council only collects around N$8,5 million monthly through the services it provides, Liswaniso added, while calling for an urgent review of some Government policies as they are currently “killing” local authorities. This includes the fact that local authorities depend on NamWater and the regional electricity distributors (REDs) to provide water and electricity to their residents while the Local Authorities Act makes provision for the local governments to do this by themselves, he said. “We are simply retailers. We buy and sell,” he said. Local authorities, he also said do not make proceeds from the roads they construct within their jurisdictions, as per the same Act. When contacted for comment, Urban and Rural Development Minister Peya Mushelenga, under whose auspices local authorities resort, said local authorities still have many revenue-generating avenues to explore. “It’s not only about water and electricity revenue. There are many spheres from which they could derive revenue. They are empowered in terms of the Act subject to the minister’s approval to enter into profit-making joint ventures,” Mushelenga said, adding that local authorities must diversify their businesses to survive. On the front of roads, Mushelenga said the law also needs to be revisited to benefit local authorities. “That is something that could be looked at but we have to go back to change legislation,” he said. -NAMPA