ONANKALI – The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform is set to instal 39 boreholes in the Okankolo, Eengodi and Nehale Lya Mpingana constituencies of the Oshikoto region before the end of March 2024.

This is according to the ministry’s Head of Rural Water Supply, Stevenson Tuukondjele, who said this is to help alleviate water shortages in these areas.

Tuukondjele in an interview with Nampa on Monday said the ministry has already awarded tenders to contractors and they have started drilling and installing boreholes in these areas to avoid the water crises they faced last year.

“We have so far drilled and installed 10 boreholes in Nehale Lya Mpingana constituency and we are now heading to the other two constituencies to drill the remaining 29 boreholes,” said Tuukondjele.

He said the boreholes are between 170 metres and 300 metres deep and will be desalinated.

“People have already started using water from the drilled boreholes and we have learned that some boreholes have water that is not consumable, but we are preparing to award tenders to install desalination plants in these boreholes to solve the problem,” said Tuukondjele.

He also urged people to applaud the government’s efforts in helping fight water crises in the region.

“People always complain that we are not doing anything, but we are drilling boreholes for them now, so I want them to see that the government is trying to help them,” he said.

Tuukondjele said they plan to desalinate the drilled boreholes before the ponds dry up.

“We know that some of the people consume water from the ponds and traditional wells, especially in areas where we have boreholes with salty water, but we encourage them to use traditional ways of cleaning the water and making it consumable while we find a solution to the desalination process,” he said.

Tuukondjele noted that they have three contractors on the sites that are busy drilling and installing boreholes. -Nampa