Water supply and sanitation in Namibia

Responsibility for water supply and sanitation

The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is in charge of water resources management, drinking water supply and sanitation in Namibia. Within the Ministry the Department for Water Resources Management and the Department for Rural Water and Sanitation Coordination are in charge of water supply and sanitation. NamWater is a state-owned bulk water supplier that operates dams, pipelines and water treatment plants throughout the country. Created in 1997, it provides and sells water to mines, as well as to municipalities which in turn distribute and sell the water to households, businesses and offices in their respective service areas. In rural areas, the Directorate of Rural Water Supply of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is in charge of water supply and sanitation.

Infrastructure

NamWater operates 16 dams, 14 water transmission lines (called "water supply networks") and 16 water treatment plants. The transmission lines are as follows:

History

In Windhoek, groundwater was almost the only source of water for until 1958 when a small surface reservoir, the Goreangab Dam, was built downstream from Windhoek. A conventional water treatment plant was also constructed to treat the surface water from this reservoir. In 1960 the Gammams Wastewater Treatment Plant was commissioned near Goreangab Dam, discharging treated wastewater downstream of the reservoir. Subsequently, industrial and domestic effluents at the wastewater treatment plant were separated. The plant treating the domestic wastewater was upgraded so that its effluent could be further treated in the existing water treatment plant.

The water treatment plant was also upgraded, so that it could further treat the treated wastewater in one train, alongside the existing train for the raw water from Goreangab Dam. Thus, the Goreangab Reclamation Plant was born in 1968. Its output was blended with water from the city's well field and was delivered as drinking water to the city's residents. When the city grew further, the municipality started to receive water from the Von Bach Dam 170 km north of Windhoek commissioned in 1970. The 1974 Water Master Plan envisaged The Eastern National Water Carrier to supply water to Namibia's central area from the Okavango River, some 750 kilometers to the north on the Angolan border. Construction of the carrier began in the late 1970s in several phases from South to North, first connecting the von Bach Dam to the newly built Omatako Dam further North over a distance of 94 km, and then connecting the Omataku Dam to Grootfontein over a distance of another 300 km. However, the next and last phase of the scheme connecting Grootfontein to the Okavango River near Rundu was never built. The Omatako Dam, completed in 1981, now only receives flood water and is empty most of the time.

In the 1990s, the city introduced progressive water pricing and educational programs that reduced consumption substantially. The daily per capita residential consumption decreased from 201 liters in 1990/91 to 117 liters in 1996/97, partly due to the introduction of a very high drought tariff. When the normal water tariff was put in place again in 1997/98, the consumption increased to 130 liters/person/day. Total per capita consumption including commerce and industry shows a reduction from 322 liters/capita/day in 1990/91 to 201 liters/capita/day in 1997/98. According to a study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), water consumption was lowered in all sectors, which is a major achievement because the reduction in water consumption in public buildings is not easily achieved. In schools, government buildings and municipal gardens, army bases and prisons the water consumption was lowered by as much as 50%. These savings postponed new supply infrastructure by about 10 years. But despite all these savings more water was needed. Thus the plant's capacity was almost tripled in 2002, allowing it to provide more than a third of the city's water demand and to relieve overused groundwater resources.

To retain public confidence, water quality at the Goreangab Treatment Plant is monitored on an ongoing basis after every process step. In the event of any quality problems, the plant goes into recycle mode and water is not delivered. According to Pisani "The citizens of Windhoek have over time become used to the idea that potable reuse is included in their water provision process. In fact, they have grown to harbor a fair amount of pride in the fact that their city in many respects leads the world in direct reclamation." The upgrading of the plant was partly funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Germany through KfW development bank. In its ex-post evaluation of the project, KfW noted that the plant faced considerable technical difficulties and temporary shutdowns over a period of seven years until it started to work properly. KfW noted that in the spirit of integrated water resources management more should have been done to reduce the per capita water consumption in Windhoek and to protect the Goreangab Dam from pollution, for example by establishing a protection zone with restricted activities around the reservoir. It also noted that the plant did achieve its objective to relieve pressure on overexploited groundwater resources.

Financial aspects

Namibia spends about 3% of its Gross Domestic Product on the operation expenditures of it water utilities. This is by far the highest percentage of all Sub-Saharan countries. Per capita, Namibia spends about 80US$ annually on water supply and sanitation, other countries in the region spend between 1 and 10 US$. Providing access to utility water in Namibia costs 4,000 US$ per capita on average.

Financing

A large share of these expenses is borne by NamWater. NamWater passes its costs fully on to its customers. Since its inception some customers failed to pay their water bills, resulting in poor financial performance. However, beginning in 2003 the company was turned around financially, including also by cutting costs. Today NamWater refinances itself to a large extent through notes issues in the Namibian stock market. As of 2015, interest paid on five-year notes issued in the same year was 9.05 percent and the company had a BBB rating from the rating agency Fitch.

Tariffs

Water tariffs in Namibia are among the highest in Africa. The first block of the residential water tariff in Windhoek costs N$13.86 (USD 0.92) per cubic metre in 2016. The water tariff includes a fixed monthly charge of N$74.43 (5 USD) which is independent of consumption. The first consumption block includes a basic consumption of 200 liter per household and day, an amount that is high for small households but can be low for large households. Higher consumption is charged at a higher tariff that was N$20.93 per cubic metre (USD 1.40) in 2015. The municipality bills water together with electricity, solid waste collection and the property tax. Residents of informal settlements receive water through public standpipes equipped with prepaid water meters. Prepaid customers pay about USD 1.9 per kiloliter (cubic metre), or about USD 0.038 per 20‐liter container.

Water tariffs in other municipalities vary. Those municipalities that receive bulk water from NamWater, which includes all large municipalities, have to recover the costs of bulk water supply plus the cost of water distribution to the customers through their own networks. A few smaller municipalities that have their own water sources are not subject to this constraint. For example, the municipality of Oranjemund provides water for free and thus has by far the highest water use in the country with an astonishing 2,667 liters/capita/day. Bulk water tariff charged by NamWater vary slightly across the country depending on the cost of supplying a specific location, but these differences are not fully passed on to municipalities. Thus NamWater effectively cross-subsidizes localities with high supply costs with surpluses from localities with lower supply costs.

Sanitation

Compared to the efforts made to improve access to safe water, Namibia is lagging behind in the provision of adequate sanitation. This includes 298 schools that have no toilet facilities. Over 50% of child deaths are related to lack of water, sanitation, or hygiene; 23% are due to diarrhea alone. The UN has identified a "sanitation crisis" in the country.

Apart from residences for upper and middle class households, sanitation is insufficient in most residential areas. Private flush toilets are too expensive for virtually all residents in townships due to their water consumption and installation cost. As a result, access to improved sanitation has not increased much since independence: In Namibia's rural areas as of 2008 13% of the population had more than basic sanitation, up from 8% in 1990. Many of Namibia's inhabitants have to resort to "flying toilets", plastic bags to defecate which after use are flung into the bush. The use of open areas close to residential land to urinate and defecate is very common and has been identified as a major health hazard.

A National Sanitation Strategy 2010-15 estimated that it would cost N$1.64 billion over five years to reach the strategy's goal through 186 individual initiatives. The strategy also noted that it was unlikely that the government would be able to afford these costs.