Omitara is a settlement in the Steinhausen electoral constituency in the

Omaheke Region Omaheke (the Otjiherero word for sandveld) is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, the least populous region. Its capital is Gobabis. It lies in eastern Namibia on the border with Botswana and is the western extension of the Kalahari Desert ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. Together with the adjacent village of Otjivero — the two places are often referred to as one — it had a population of approximately 1,200 as of October 2008. Otjivero and Omitara Railway Station are two contiguous TransNamib railway stops en route from

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

to Gobabis.

Economy and Infrastructure

Basic Income Grant project

In 2008 and 2009, Omitara and Otjivero were the site of a basic income grant test project. Every person under the retirement age of 60 was given 100 Namibian dollars (Namibian pensioners get an independent allowance of 550N$ per month). The follow-up study, published in October 2008, reported that poverty-related crime, malnutrition rates among children and school drop outs had decreased since the inception of the project. The coalition advocating for a BIG in Namibia was led by labour and church organisations, hoping for a nationwide implementation of this grant to alleviate the worst effects of poverty in the country. The

government of Namibia The government of Namibia consists of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary branches. The Cabinet is the executive organ of government, implementing the laws of the country. It consists of the president, the prime minister and his de ...

has however not supported this initiative. After the last payment was scheduled for December 2009, a bridging allowance of 80 N$ per month was introduced in order not to "let residents slide back into the dehumanising levels of poverty that they experienced before". This bridging allowance was paid until the end of 2011 when the BIG coalition ran out of money. Payments resumed again in July 2014 with support from the Waldensian Church in Italy.

Otjovero Dam

Otjivero Hauptdamm und Nebendamm Mai 2018

West of Otjivero and Omitara the Otjivero Dams are situated. They comprise a main dam and a silt dam and store the water of the White Nossob River.

References

Notes

Literature