Windhoek ‘On the Edge’: Who Will Pay for the City We All Migrate To?

Every morning, the traffic on Robert Mugabe Avenue crawls.

Sewer lines burst in Katutura.

Thousands in Havana and Babylon live in shacks without water, sanitation or power.

The symptoms are visible.

The underlying question is more pointed: has Windhoek hit its urban limits, or has government failed to correct the market?

The answer is supply and demand.

National demand for people to move to Windhoek is higher than the capital city’s supply of infrastructure.

Migration from rural areas and other towns outweighs the capacity of municipal pipes, roads, and treatment plants.

Yet there is no clearly defined central government budget to fix this and correct the market failure.

The result: informal settlements grow, housing backlogs rise, and the city absorbs a national burden with local rates.

HISTORIC ROOTS

Before independence, Windhoek’s infrastructure was planned for a controlled population.

Movement from north of the redline was restricted through the labour contract system.

Employers built compounds, backyard flats, houses, schools and clinics.