The Minister of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform of Namibia, Calle Schlettwein, said on Thursday, that the project to develop the country’s second desalination plant is at an advanced stage, reports News Ghana.
The facility will be located in the Erongo region and will provide water to domestic and industrial customers.
The plant is expected to produce 70,000 cubic meters of desalinated water a day and will be part of an integrated water supply system for the Central Coastal Areas and the hinterland.
Schlettwein added that the feasibility study on desalination is finalized and the process of a public-private partnership on the project is entering an advanced stage.
The site where the facility will be built has already been acquired according to Calle Schlettwein and the water abstraction and power off-take arrangements are also underway.
The Erongo region in central-western Namibia is home to tourism, fishing and mining industries and is expected to need 36.5 billion liters of water a year by 2030 for public and private use, but current sources can only meet less than a third of that demand.
Namibia is one of the largest and driest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with highly unpredictable precipitation patterns. Its high evaporation rates lead to an annual water deficit relative to rainfall of 1,300 millimeters to 2,500 millimeters, which can be compounded by periodic droughts.
