THE damages and losses caused by the floods that hit northern and northeastern Namibia at the beginning of this year have been estimated at N$1,7 billion.

In its final report on the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) issued on Thursday, Cabinet said N$1,1 billion of this was attributed to damages to physical assets and N$0.6 billion to production losses.

The report said floods affected an area that is home to 60 per cent of the country's population, destroying critical infrastructure, washing away crops and livestock, damaging homes and causing widespread displacement.

The PDNA report was based on the work of the Human Early Recovery Needs Assessment done by the United Nations and the Damage and Loss Assessment by the World Bank.

"The long-term reconstruction needs at an estimated cost of N$3,8 billion for the construction of better housing and infrastructure and transforming the agriculture sector to be more resilient to droughts together with water harvesting," said the report.

Cabinet said the medium- and long-term activities proposed in the PDNA does not constitute a recovery and reconstruction plan and more needs to be done to formulate projects.