OTAVI – Endowed with abundant natural free-flowing water springs, the town of Otavi continues to agitate for the ability to supply its own water and dump NamWater as its bulk supplier.

The town is strategically located on the B1 national road in the Otjozondjupa region in the area known as the Maize Triangle. 

It is served by a groundwater scheme supplying potable water to the town council.

The town council leadership is hard at work to ensure they stop paying NamWater for supplying water to the town, arguing they should benefit from the natural water springs like other towns.

Otavi mayor Isaac !Hoaeb, in an interview with New Era, expressed the town’s frustration that it sits on top of water, but NamWater is still supplying water to them at a cost. 

In fact, he said, Otavi’s water debt has escalated to more than N$39 million to date.

“Although NamWater’s input is not a lot, they are still charging us the same rate as they charge other towns. There is a fountain just four kilometres from town where this water is coming from. NamWater is catching the water in the reservoir, and this water flows down to Otavi. There are also boreholes owned by NamWater and another reservoir they are filling up,” he bemoaned. 

According to !Hoaeb, Otavi leadership has on numerous occasions sent a communication to NamWater that they are not happy with the price the town council is paying for water. 

He said the leadership had sent letters to NamWater to engage them about the issue. 

Contacted for comment, NamWater CEO Abraham Nehemia yesterday clarified the bulk water supply infrastructure is owned by NamWater, a public entity operating under commercial principles. 

It sells water to the mining companies, as well as to the municipalities, which in turn sell it to urban residents and businesses.

Nehemia said the issue of Otavi wanting to supply its own water started after the town council water debt to NamWater escalated into millions of dollars.

“The problem started when they realised their water bill is huge. Instead of honouring the debt, they started complaining to us about why we make them pay while water is coming naturally from the springs. They say they want to decommission from paying NamWater for water supply,” Nehemia said.

At some point, !Hoaeb charged they went up to Windhoek, and the chairperson of the regional council was also part of the delegation. 

“We went to ask the deputy minister of urban and rural development to accompany us. To our surprise, NamWater decided not to meet us while we were already in Windhoek. They just called us while we were already there that they don’t want to talk to politicians. They said they only want to talk to technocrats and administrators. That meeting was called off unceremoniously while we were there,” the mayor maintained.

About two weeks ago, he added there was also a delegation from the ministry of agriculture, and also NamWater that was supposed to come see the leadership of Otavi so both parties see what is on the ground.

He said the delegation came and no one called him or anyone at their office to join that delegation. 

“They went ahead to go and see the infrastructure without us. This is another deliberate attempt to undermine us after they did this to us in Windhoek. NamWater is unfortunately not forthcoming to sit and discuss this issue,” he remarked. 

Another bone of contention is the fact that NamWater is directly supplying water to the military base in Otavi, of which !Hoaeb argues the town council is supposed to supply, as it falls under their jurisdiction.

“All these things led us to take a decision that we are going to supply our own water. We want to supply our own water. We have stakeholders who are willing to fund this project. They have come on board and said once we have approval, they are willing to fund,” he indicated. 

Nehemia, however, said NamWater does not need any permission to visit its water infrastructure anywhere in Namibia.

“We don’t need permission to go to the reservoir. We don’t need to ask anyone to go to our facilities,” he said.

Regarding the alleged ditched meetings with Otavi town council, Nehemia explained the Windhoek engagement could not happen, as the agriculture minister travelled outside the country on an official trip.

He said the new date for the meeting is yet to be arranged by the minister’s office to discuss the matter and find a solution.