Ministry mum on aquifer

ILENI NANDJATO



Despite the fact that the Ohangwena Region has a massive aquifer estimated to hold around 20 billion cubic metres of fresh water, inhabitants of the Omundaungilo, Oshikunde, Okongo and Epembe constituencies are consuming water that is unfit for human consumption.

According to the agriculture and water ministry, the aquifer has the potential to supply water to northern Namibia for the next 400 years.

A member of the water committee at Elunda Londjamba village in the Oshikunde constituency, Paulus Nghilukilwa, told Namibian Sun that the people remained hopeful that the government would one day provide them with tap water fit for human consumption.

Nghilukilwa said several boreholes that were drilled at different places yielded saline water not fit for human consumption and the people and their livestock depend on rainwater from ponds.

“When these ponds dry up, the community members have to walk up to 40km or more to fetch water from places where boreholes contain fresh, potable water. Senior citizens and those who can’t reach these paces have no other option but to consume the saline water. Many others use donkeys to transport water,” Nghilukilwa said.

He further said there is a borehole at Elunda Londjamba powered by a diesel pump and the residents have to contribute money to buy diesel.

“Community members are not using the water point because not everybody can afford to give money for the diesel.”

The Ohangwena regional councillor for Omundaungilo Constituency, Festus Ikanda, called for the establishment of a Constituency Development Fund that would enable regional councillors to have their own budgets to fund projects.

“We have a water tank distribution programme in the region, but it covers a huge area. This means that for weeks there is no water that will be distributed to collection points or constituencies. A feasibility study was conducted to have pipeline connection at Ohandiba to bring water to Eenhana from Ondobe.

“This 100km pipeline will connect Epinga, Oshipala, Elundu, Onghwiyu in the Oshikunde constituency and also connect the Epembe constituency,” Ikanda explained.

Omundaungilo village gets water from the Omhalapapa borehole, about 20km away.

Last year, Namibian Sun was informed by the agriculture ministry that a group of German and local scientists had started testing the Ohangwena II Aquifer.

The group warned that careless drilling could spoil the giant groundwater source. It was also reported that a production well had been drilled at Eenhana and was being tested with the assistance of NamWater.

The deputy director of geohydrology, Bertram Swartz, who is the project coordinator, was not able to give an update on the progress made so far.

Information made available to Namibian Sun indicates that the project, which started in 2007, will run until the end of May next year.

It is financed by the German Development Fund, the European Union (EU) and NamWater at a cost of N$25 million.

Information obtained from the EU shows that after the aquifer was identified, a groundwater hydro-census was conducted as a baseline study between 2007 and 2008. A transient electromagnetic (TEM) field survey revealed potential freshwater horizons in the Ohangwena and Omusati regions.

Drilling campaigns were done between 2009 and 2010 and verified the existence of a deep aquifer in the western part of the Ohangwena Region. Additional observation boreholes were drilled in 2011 to delineate the freshwater extent and to set up a groundwater monitoring network.

Investigations established that the aquifer stretches for about 75km from the Ondobe Constituency towards the east and about 40km from the Angolan border to the south. It forms part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin (CEB).

The CEB is divided into six groundwater regions and one of them is the Ohangwena Aquifer (KOH I and KOH II), a multi-layered, continuous porous aquifer system of the eastern Ohangwena and northern Oshikoto regions with a groundwater flow from Angola to the south.