Amarika water crisis continues

Amarika water crisis continuesN$200m desalination plant still out of order There appears to be no end in sight to the water problems plaguing the people of Amarika in the Omusati Region. The governor of Omusati Region, Erginus Endjala, says all efforts to address the water crisis at Amarika have failed.

Endjala, who described the situation as a disaster, also confirmed that the N$200 million desalination plant donated by Germany was out of order and that the region had no capacity to fix it.

According to Endjala, most of the communities in Omusati have potable water except the people of Amarika. The settlement of Amarika is situated about 70km south of Okahao.

“The Amarika situation is serious and we do not know how to assist them (people),” he said.

“The government tried to drill boreholes for them, but their underground water is salty.”

The governor said that it was also impossible to get clean drinking water to the people of Amarika via a pipeline at this stage, arguing that the long distance would affect the water pressure.

“It is unfortunate that Amarika benefited from one of the most expensive and sophisticated desalination plants, but it is not functioning anymore. The Germans went back and our local people have no capacity to repair it,” he said.

Endjala also said the plant was not a permanent solution to the water crisis at Amarika adding that plans are underway for the government to take over the plant.

“Currently we have two options to resolve the Amarika water situation. One option is to drill boreholes near Etosha and pump water to Amarika using water pipes. Another option is for the government to take over the desalination plant. The latter will be done with assistance from GIZ in order to get experienced technicians to repair it.”

Endjala, however, said both options are costly and will take time. He said the option to take water from Etosha to Amarika was prohibitive and time consuming considering the long distance that the water will be ferried saying it will not happen anytime soon.

In 2006, the German/Namibia research project CuveWaters, through Integrated Water Resources Management and using funds from the German education and research ministry (BMBF), installed two solar-powered desalination plants at Amarika and Akutsima for N$200 million.

The system is capable of producing 3.3 cubic metres of clean drinking water daily, but the plant broke down immediately after it was handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry in 2010.

In 2015, the agriculture ministry and CuveWaters agreed on final optimisation and maintenance works.

Amarika residents said the plant was idle for two years from 2013 until it was repaired in 2015 but the plant only pumped water for just one month and broke down again.

Local people who were trained were only shown how to operate the system and maintain external components but they were not taught how to maintain the technical and electronic aspects of the water system.

According to sources, the people who were trained cannot detect what is wrong when the plant stops working.

Endjala said currently, the regional council is supplying drinking water to Amarika residents using the council water tanker, but because it is the only tanker in the region, the water deliveries cannot be done regularly.



ILENI NANDJATO