Water flow resumes to Hardap irrigation scheme

Ellanie Smit

Water supply to the Hardap irrigation scheme from the Hardap Dam resumed this morning at 05:00.
The supply has been guaranteed for the next seven days.
NamWater CEO Abraham Nehemia said yesterday that the Hardap Dam had received an inflow of 2.6 million cubic metres of water over the weekend.
The dam level stood at 6.8% on Monday.
According to Nehemia, NamWater calculated that one million cubic metres of water could be supplied to the irrigation scheme.
“It will therefore depend on how quickly the producers use this allocated water before we close supply again. We do not know how much water they will be using per day. But this will likely be able to keep plants alive for about a week.”
Asked if any further inflow was expected this week, Nehemia said: “The forecast for this week is zero, but for next week it looks better and inflow can then be expected again.”
Namibian Sun reported earlier this week that the suspension of water supply to the irrigation scheme was catastrophic for the dairy industry, as no maize was expected to be produced in the region this year.
The Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) said the country’s annual milk production had declined by 9% since 2018, when 23 million litres of milk was produced, to 21 million litres last year.
“Hardap producers alone supply 80% of the milk nationwide and with the closure of the Hardap Dam you can imagine the catastrophe that this will lead to,” the NAU stated.