WINDHOEK – The Millennium Challenge Account Namibia (MCA-N) HAS officially handed over 74 water points to the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF).
The infrastructure projects to the combined value of N$ 31.2 million were built or upgraded in the Northern Communal Areas (NCAs) under its Community-Based Rangeland and Livestock Management (CBRLM) sub-activity. They were received by MAWF Deputy Minister, Lempy Lucas, in the form of a CBRLM Water Infrastructure Report that was simultaneously launched at the government’s Office Park in Windhoek. N$ 2.7 million were contributed by the Ministry for the drilling of 15 boreholes that were then equipped with pumps, water tanks, troughs and elephant protection walls by MCA-N.
As MCA-N’s CBRLM programme includes the grazing of large combined herds with up to 2,000 head of cattle according to a pre-defined grazing pattern, water infrastructure that can cater for such large herds is essential for successful implementation. This ranges from traditional hand-dug wells and boreholes to extended pipelines or dams, such as the Epembe earth dam with a capacity of 60,000 m3. Lucas thanked the MCA-Non behalf of Minister John Mutorwa for their support availed on behalf of the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). This for “empowering and equipping rangeland users and managers, who are the livestock owners and their herders, with knowledge as well as organisational skills to collectively manage our fragile rangeland and indeed their livestock in a sustainable manner”.
MCA-N Agriculture Director, Dr. Helmke Sartorius von Bach, highlighted that apart from upgrading 48 existing water points, 39 new water points were established and 1,290 livestock owning households, 28,100 cattle and 22,700 head of small stock are benefitting from this investment.