Africa-Press – Namibia. Water utility, NamWater, has assured stakeholders that the ongoing water crisis in Walvis Bay is being addressed.
The town has been battling low water pressure and supply interruptions since February due to ageing infrastructure, frequent pipe bursts, and cable theft, contributing to intermittent power outages at key borehole sites.
This situation has left the fishing industry – one of the country’s largest employers and a major contributor to Namibia’s N$14 billion export earnings – in distress, with some factories going on a go-slow due to the shortage of fresh water.
NamWater held a stakeholders’ meeting last week at the harbour town to brief the industry on its ongoing efforts to address the immediate challenges posed by the water shortages.
Despite the efforts, the towns water woes continued over the weekend with some suburbs going for hours without a drop.
Frans Ihuhua, who oversees water supply in Erongo for NamWater, told the stakeholder meeting that immediate and long-term interventions are underway to stabilize the supply situation.
He said two boreholes are being reinstated to temporarily supplement Walvis Bay’s water needs of 900m3 per hour.
“To avoid further disruptions, we’ve procured generators, through emergency procurement, to power the boreholes. These generators will be tested today and will be secured by dedicated security personnel,” Ihuhua said.
He said this is expected to help bypass the ongoing power outages which are the primary cause of the water delivery disruptions at the town.
Meanwhile, NamWater is also pushing forward with a long-term strategy to secure water supplies for the growing town over the next 20 years. Part of the plan includes replacing 30km of old pipeline with greased aluminum pipes to minimise corrosion – a project expected to be completed by the end of June.
Additionally, five more boreholes will be brought online in the coming years to increase water capacity.
A follow-up meeting with affected stakeholders is scheduled for this week with the industry.
Despite these efforts, fishing companies remain under pressure. Johny Doeseb, chairperson of the Wet-landed Small Pelagic Association, earlier said some companies are now transporting water from Swakopmund just to keep operations going.
“NamWater must urgently replace the ageing infrastructure in the Kuiseb Delta. The breakdown of their supply lines is crippling our operations,” he said.
NovaNam’s managing director, Edwin Kamatoto, said they’ve been struggling for more than a month, with some of their equipment not functioning properly due to low water pressure.
“But things worsened on 15 May when we had no water at all. We had to source 50 000 litres from the municipality to save our products,” he added.
Similarly, Adolf Burger, general manager of Princes Brand Processing, said their pelagic operations have been forced to scale down.
“We’ve had to reduce shifts and truck water in to keep things going. It’s increasing our costs and affecting productivity,” he said.
NamWater spokesperson Lot Ndamanomhata earlier also said while the rationing regime remains, nightly water cuts are currently limited to four hours – from midnight to 04h00.
He added that procurement of replacement powerlines is in its final stages, and the full upgrade is expected to be completed by the end of June.
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