CityMender Namibia partners with Windhoek Express to build a smarter Namibia
CityMender Namibia has officially launched nationwide, giving residents a free and easy way to report, track and update infrastructure and service-delivery issues while contributing to a growing, live understanding of infrastructure conditions across the country.
Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, CityMender Namibia brings one of the most advanced resident-powered infrastructure reporting and tracking platforms introduced in Namibia directly to communities.
Residents can report more than 30 different types of infrastructure and service-delivery issues 0- from potholes, damaged streetlights and sinkholes to water leaks, electricity and water outages, illegal dumping, sewer problems and environmental concerns - within minutes. Once submitted, reports are automatically mapped using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, while CityMender's integrated system assists with the escalation and
ongoing tracking of reported issues. Together, these reports contribute to a transparent live map of infrastructure conditions across Namibia.
CityMender is about more than reporting problems. Its purpose is to help - to help residents communicate what is happening in their communities, help municipalities and other stakeholders better understand conditions on the ground, help identify recurring infrastructure challenges, and ultimately help create safer, better-functioning
environments with less frustration for everyone involved. Every report and community update contributes to a growing infrastructure dataset. One pothole, water leak or electricity outage is a local problem. Thousands of reports and updates over time can reveal patterns, recurring challenges, areas requiring attention and changes in infrastructure conditions.
“CityMender is not about criticising municipalities. It is about helping communities and those responsible for infrastructure work from better, more current information. Residents experience infrastructure every day. If we can responsibly turn those observations into structured, mapped and continuously updated data, we can build something incredibly valuable for Namibia over time” said Keyuren Maharaj, Founder of CityMender.
CityMender Namibia has been developed as a full-stack infrastructure reporting, tracking and intelligence system, designed to connect community reporting with the broader organisations and stakeholders responsible for understanding and managing infrastructure. For residents, the platform makes reporting and tracking as simple and accessible as possible. For municipalities and other authorised stakeholders, the underlying system has been designed to support access to structured infrastructure information, monitoring tools and data that can assist with understanding reported conditions and responding more efficiently. Residents can report issues using an intuitive step-by-step process, select exact locations through interactive mapping, add photographs, view issues already reported around them and submit community updates as conditions change.
Residents are strongly encouraged to enable notifications so they can receive relevant updates and make full use of the platform. Privacy has also been built into CityMender through automatic facial and vehicle registration
plate redaction, helping protect personal privacy while maintaining the value of visual infrastructure information.
Residents are therefore encouraged not only to use it, but to help improve it. Most importantly, CityMender Namibia is completely free for residents.
