Reverend Jan A. Scholtz
Water is the foundation to life, and no living thing – human, animal or plant – can survive without it. This biological and sociological fact is declared in both creation stories where we see that water was part of the stuff that God used to create other things, shape it into different oceans and allow it to bring forth all kinds of creatures, and then causing rivers to flow through Eden to water the ground. The biblical experience of the scarcity of water, is part of our wider human experience as the following figures indicate. Only 3% of the available water is fresh (not sea water), and of the 3%, only 1% is surface water, and then just over half of the surface water is actually accessible in lakes and rivers. In reality, we only have the use of 0.00016% of all the water on the planet. This translates to 40 000 cubic meters but even this infinitely small percentage is skewed by the way that the accessible water is distributed.
Hydrologists say that when a country has over 1700 cubic meters per person per year, it experiences water sufficiency. Between 1 000 and 1 700 cubic meters it experiences water stress, and below 1 000 cubic meters they speak of water scarcity. On this scale, 505 million people in 31 countries are experiencing water stress/scarcity, and on current trends, this will rise to between 2.4 and 3.2 billion people by 2025. This will have a dramatic effect upon human health, economic development, food production and natural ecosystems.
The use of treated efficient water for agricultural and marine culture purposes, although controversial, is a practice commonly utilized all over the world. Furthermore, the recycling and reuse of effluent water have increased significantly over the last four decades with transnational organisations like the United Nations and the World Health Organisation encouraging the reuse of treated effluent water as a means to reduce the stress on the world’s natural water sources.
This drive for water sustainability, amongst other things, has resulted in numerous international instruments being drafted and signed by world leaders, for example, the Millennium Development Goals which was signed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000.
The Millennium Development Goals were succeeded by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which amongst other things again emphasized the importance of reusing waste water (example Goal 6). The United Nations and the World Health Organization have also highlighted that the reuse of waste water can also address social woes like unemployment and that, if treated correctly, wastewater can be a rich source of nutrition for agricultural crops. This can, for example, be seen in India and Pakistan where millions of hectares of land is irrigated with wastewater, which in turn feeds hundreds of thousands of people in this region annually.
In Namibia, where large parts of the country have a lack of natural water, the reuse of wastewater becomes particularly important and essential. Seeing that Namibia is also a signatory of the above-mentioned United Nations General Assembly Resolutions, it also has aßewater for use by the general public. Besides the effluent treatment plant in Windhoek and the Luderitz Town Council, in collaboration with national government and its European partners in the European Union, constructed a sophisticated effluent treatment plant, which can treat effluent water up to international standards before discharging the treated water for aquaponics and hydroponics projects. The region of //Kharas initially provided its private partner with four hectares of land on which to launch the pilot programme, where 10 people are already employed. Initial results have indicated that the water and soil are not only suitable for agricultural purposes, but that plant and animal life thrive in the area where the treated water is discharged. With the aforementioned success, the //Kharas has encouraged the further expansion of operations which will result in meaningful employment and development opportunities, not only for the //Kharas region but for Namibia in general.
The envisioned expansion includes the construction of a piggery, an abattoir and a butchery.
The strategy is to employ as many individuals as possible from the various operations which use reclaimed wastewater, while also bringing as much development to the Luderitz area as possible. The overarching idea is to use the reclaimed water to grow crops which in turn will be fed to the pigs, effectively reducing the price of pork which will be sold to the local population, retailers and //Kharas in general.
The construction of a dairy farm is also being pursued, which will also significantly reduce the price of milk which is to be sold to //Kharas and eventually to the rest of Namibia.
As a country, Namibia has been accepted into the United Nations (UN) water convention, which makes it the first Southern African country to join. In the Sun edition of 18 October 2023, Namibia’s agricultural minister Calle Schlettwein indicated that Africa’s immediate challenge is to supply fresh water to more than 400 million people and supply sanitation to 700 million people who have no proper facilities. Furthermore, government has committed to spend 2.6 billion on a water sector support programme, aimed at addressing the issue of water and sanitation.
In conclusion, the use of treated effluent water is not a problem in need of a solution but can be used for the social and economic upliftment of all Namibian citizens. By utilizing wastewater which would otherwise have been disregarded, we will be able to create meaningful employment and development opportunities for all Namibians. Although the proposed developments are ambitious, they can undoubtedly be achieved through public-private partnerships and a joint vision for Namibia and its people by the private sector government.
* Reverend Jan. A. Scholtz is the former Chairperson of ||Kharas Regional Council as well as !Nami#nus Constituency Regional Councillor. He is a holder of Diploma in Theology, B-Theo (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), Diploma in Education III (KOK) BA (HED) from UNISA