2018-08-03Staff Report 2 Selma Ikela WINDHOEK – In light of shrinking water in its supply sources the City of Windhoek has urged residents to save 10 percent of water as the City faces a water scarcity. This comes after an official water scarcity was declared and subsequently water restrictions should be implemented accordingly, the City of Windhoek announced. As a result, water saving targets for Windhoek accordingly increased from five percent to 10 percent. A press statement issued by the City said the recent announcement made by NamWater was that the inflow into the dams for the past rainy season amounted to only about 24.9 percent of the average expected inflow. “Therefore, in line with the provisions of the water management plan, the City of Windhoek herewith announces to our esteemed residents that, based on the current situation with regard to the availability of water for the next three years, the City of Windhoek has no choice but to increase demand management by moving from the current category, which is to reduce water consumption to mandatory water savings as per the scarcity severity with effect from August 1,” reads the statement. The City has also started with water restriction measures as of August 1 which include restriction of watering of gardens, the washing of cars at home, other than utilising certified car washes, while pool covers are mandatory and no filling of private pools is allowed. The City’s section engineer: mechanical and electrical, Jacobus Theron, explained the importance of water demand management or water saving of at least 10 percent. “All the saving we will gain on that 10 percent we offset against the abstraction from the boreholes. We are trying not to abstract too much water from the aquifer. We are still trying to keep the emergency source for the future. Whatever we can save today and tomorrow will be offset against abstraction – meaning we are pumping less water from the aquifer, which will be good for us in the long run,” said Theron. He added that they are planning to have sources that will sustain the City for the next three seasons if there are no inflows into the dams, which necessitated plans to use some of the emergency sources such as boreholes in Windhoek and other emergency sources that are managed by NamWater. 2018-08-03Staff Report 2
