Fresh water for Bethanie, Grünau

The poor water quality in Bethanie and Grünau that has caused several health problems for communities living in these areas will finally be addressed. These two project sites, both located in the //Karas Region, have been selected for two pilot rural desalination plants using renewable power and membrane technology in the country. The Adaptation Fund, a global organisation working on projects to combat climate change, recently approved funding of about N$68 million for Namibia's proposal of the four-year project. This project proposes to pilot the treatment of poor quality local groundwater to a level that complies with the national standards for potable water, using hybrid renewable energy to power the treatment process. The acquired knowledge and skills will then be communicated to local stakeholders in the water supply sector so that the applied technology could be mainstreamed and replicated elsewhere in the country as an adaptation to climate change.It is intended that the treatment will be a desalination process based on reverse osmosis (RO) and that electricity generation will be based on a combination of solar and wind energy. For Bethanie, a new scheme will be developed that will involve the pumping of treated water from the Naute Dam's water treatment plant to Bethanie. This will include an offtake structure, a 106-km pipeline, three pump stations, three balancing reservoirs, a power line and other power sources for booster pump stations costing roughly N$97.2 millionWater from the Orange River will be pumped to Grünau. The new scheme will involve pumping treated water from a water treatment plant at Aussenkehr to Grünau. This will include an offtake structure, a new 126-km pipeline, four booster stations, four balancing reservoirs; power line and other power source for booster stations to the cost of N$129.6 millionAccording to the project proposal, the communities at both Grünau and Bethanie have high poverty levels, typical of many small towns, villages and settlements across Namibia. At Bethanie the current estimated population is 2 978 people.The water scheme supplies the village from two production boreholes located within the Konkiep River, 50 metres apart and approximately 2.85 km away from the main reservoir. A pipeline connects the two boreholes to the main reservoir. The scheme currently runs at a maximum of 53% of its recommended abstraction rate, and even in a high-growth scenario this is expected to be about 60% in 2030. According to the proposal drafted for funding, the blended borehole water does not comply with the new proposed water quality standards and has a high fluoride content, on average 3.06 mg/l, that classifies the water as Group D and not suitable for human consumption, according to the current guidelines. During stakeholder consultations at Bethanie, community members ascribed the following symptoms experienced by themselves to the poor quality of their water as brown teeth, headaches, high blood pressure, and gastrointestinal disturbances. The gastrointestinal disturbances are most probably caused by bacteriological contamination of the drinking water, but headaches and high blood pressure are not caused by fluoride.At Grünau, the current population is estimated at around 500 residents.NamWater supplies water in bulk to Grünau, which consists of both formal and informal communities. Reticulated water is supplied to erven in the formal sector, while the informal settlement has communal standpipes. ELLANIE SMIT

Fresh water for Bethanie, Grünau

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-16

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Fresh water for Bethanie, Grünau

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-16

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