Windhoek digs deep for water

The City of Windhoek is hard at work to diversify water supply options in order to reduce its reliance on bulk supplier NamWater as part of the City's strategic transformation plan over the next five years.Emergency plans implemented last year kept taps running despite a serious decline in water security, but City officials admitted recently that “the fact remains that water supply is a major challenge given that the interior of the country has already surpassed the point where the inland water sources can no longer sustain the ever-increasing demand for water.”In line with this, the “City will have to work towards establishing efficiency in water use befitting the arid environment, while national efforts to remedy the situation continue.”Last year the City drilled and installed 12 boreholes that linked up with the local water supply network, a move that kept taps open at the most critical time. And while the project was finalised in December “and remains available to the residents of Windhoek for future similar emergency situations”, the City has incorporated numerous strategies focused on water supply diversification and security in its five-year plan. Big future plans The alternative water supply strategies are included in the recently released Transformational Strategic Plan 2017 and 2022, which aims to ensure continued water supply security while the city's population grows. These plans include expanding the Gammams water reclamation facility and embarking on a major plan to reduce water losses caused by pipe leaks. The municipality's plans to address and improve water security include a number of other initiatives, including an aquifer recharge scheme which will improve access to water supply and sanitation for the poor, among other benefits. The diversification objective forms part of the City's governance and financial sustainability goals, which note that the municipality will explore “various options for providing alternating bulk supply options instead of relying solely on NamWater and NamPower.” One of the strategic water supply goals is to pursue is to identify “maximum re-use and minimising internal losses” of water. The projects under this goal include establishing an additional direct potable re-use facility at the Gammams site. “This will not only diversify supply but will also play a pivotal role as an interim water supply option under future augmentation by the government as well as improve overall water quality in the cycle.” A second initiative is to reduce water loss by “optimising the use of scarce and costly available water resources through minimising technical and non-technical losses.” In line with this, the City announced that a unit was being established to benchmark water loss reduction and to craft an improvement and maintenance plan to bring losses to an acceptable level as well as maintaining the status quo. Bank precious water The aquifer recharge scheme project, which is designed to improve water security, another key objective of the City, will essentially be used as a “water banking scheme” which will help shield the capital from the effects of climate change and help “strengthen the resilience of the regional population to drought.” The project will expand the capacity of the Windhoek Managed Aquifer Recharge Scheme (W-Mars) to enable adaptation to temperature increases by storing water underground and preventing evaporation, and to rainfall variability, as water is captured in high rainfall years and saved for times of drought. “The expected key result is increased resilience and enhanced livelihoods of the most vulnerable people, communities and regions. About 430 000 direct beneficiaries will gain from improved water provision in periods of drought,” the City stated. The municipality noted that while alternative, national solutions are being explored and implemented for improving water supply, “W-Mars offers an innovative and flexible response to deal with the additional risks posed by climate change.” Moreover, the project “yields sustainable development benefits” in terms of costs to expand on water supply infrastructure, improving access to water and sanitation to the most vulnerable residents, as well as keeping the taps open during water supply emergencies. The W-Mars project was partially implemented (40%) between 2014 and 2016 and formed part of its emergency strategy last year. The remainder of the project is set to be completed over the next four years. JANA-MARI SMITH

Windhoek digs deep for water

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Namibian Sun 2026-01-01

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Windhoek digs deep for water

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Namibian Sun 2026-01-01

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