Farmers pushed to the brink

Crop farmers at the Olushandja Dam in the Omusati Region have been forced to shut down their operations, with the majority struggling to repay their AgriBank loans due to a chronic water shortage. The farmers, who source their water from the NamWater reservoir, have also laid off hundreds of workers in the process. A decision by NamWater to pump water from Olushandja to supply its Oshakati purification plant has severely affected the farmers. NamWater confirmed that it pumps water from the backup reservoir at Olushandja whenever it experiences supply shortages from the Calueque Dam in Angola. According to NamWater spokesperson Johannes Shigwedha, the 17km long and 2km wide Olushandja Dam, where farmers draw water from, serves as reservoir to store water for emergency usage. “Whenever we have a water shortage from the Calueque Dam we close the Olushandja Dam's off-take. Since the Angolan government started with the rehabilitation of their dam, NamWater has been experiencing a water shortage that preventing us from pumping water into the dam. We however started pumping water from Olushandja to supply Oshakati purification plant,” Shigwedha explained. At the moment there is no water for about 68 farmers in the area. About 2 000 farmworkers have lost their jobs. Olushandja Horticulture Producers Association (OHPA) chairperson Paulus Amutenya has decried the state of affairs. “Some farmers have already closed their projects, while some are preparing to wind down operations as there appears to be no hope for what has the potential of becoming the breadbasket of the northern regions and a contributor to Namibia's food self-sufficiency,” Amutenya said. Shigwedha confirmed that NamWater had reduced its pumping of water at Olushandja three years ago because of rehabilitation work that was being carried out at Calueque. He said three new water pumps were installed at Calueque and due to the increased pressure damage was done to the canal. The Calueque-Oshakati canal of approximately 150km supplies northern Namibia with water for irrigation and drinking purposes. “From Calueque we replaced the canal with a pipe and that pipe is currently damaged and that is why we are experiencing water shortages. We closed Olushandja off because we do not have enough water. In fact we had to get water from Olushandja to supply Oshakati purification plant,” Shigwedha said. He said a company that was contracted to repair the pipeline arrived at the site on Friday and were expected to be done in three weeks' time. He added that currently they are only using one pump to avoid damaging the canal. According to Tangeni Negonga, who has been growing vegetables at the Olushandja Dam since 1998, the situation has become unbearable. He said business had been good for them until 2015 when NamWater stopped pumping water into the dam and they have been depending on rainwater. “The production started getting low as the water quality became bad for the produce. We started reducing production fields and later we started retrenching workers. Things are not good for us at all,” Negonga said. He said when business was booming AgriBank extended loans to most of the farmers and because of the current situation they would not be able to repay them. “Farmers along the Olushandja Dam do not receive financial support from the government. Some of us have started our projects with our savings and use profits to extend our farms without any assistance from the government. “Only after we were doing well did Agribank come to us and the majority took out loans. Now we are in this situation, how are we going to pay back the loan money?” The farmers supply their produce to the Agro-Marketing and Trading Agency (AMTA) at the Ongwediva Fresh Produce hub and the Olushandja Horticultural Marketing Centre at Epalela. ILENI NANDJATO

Farmers pushed to the brink

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-15

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Farmers pushed to the brink

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-15

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