No end to Amarika water woes
A desalination system at Amarika, broken now for some years, cannot be fixed as the region has no “capacity” for the repairs.
Despite several interventions by the Omusati regional council and other stakeholders, Amarika villagers still don't have potable water from the multimillion-dollar desalination plant donated by Germany about a decade ago.
Amarika resident Andreas Kayena told Namibian Sun that since mid-2017 they have been unable to get water from the plant, which has worked on and off since the time it was handed over in 2010.
In 2006, CuveWaters, a German/Namibian research project, through Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), using funds from the German education and research ministry, started installing two solar-powered desalination plants at Amarika and Akutsima at a cost of N$200 million.
Regional council PRO Simeon Kandjala confirmed the Amarika desalination plant is out of order and that the region has no capacity to fix it.
Gundula Perry from the German embassy in Namibia, however, told Namibian Sun in 2016 that almost all the spare parts needed for the system can be obtained in Namibia, while additional parts are kept on-site.
She added at the time that Namibian service providers have the expertise to fix even major problems.
Kayena said since 2017 the plant has only been used to store water delivered by a rural water supply truck, before it broke down.
“If it is working, the plant provides us with potable water, but now that it has not worked in a very long time we have given up. There is no other alternative but to get water from our wells, even though they are not in good state,” Kayena said.
“At least we are thankful that even though the plant is not working, there are water storage facilities that rural water supply used when they brought us water with the tanker. At least we could use that water for a while.”
Amarika residents are currently consuming salty, green water from self-created wells, as well as tombo, as they wait for government to purchase tyres for a tanker that used to supply water to rural communities throughout the Omusati Region.
The Amarika and Akutsima desalination system is capable of producing 3.3 cubic metres of clean drinking water daily, but the Amarika plant broke down immediately after it was handed over to the agriculture ministry in 2010.
In 2015, the ministry and CuveWaters agreed on final optimisation and maintenance works.
Amarika residents said the plant was idle for two years, from 2013 until it was repaired in 2015, but it only pumped water for a month and broke down again. Since then it worked on and off until mid-2017, when came to a standstill.
Locals who were trained were only shown how to operate the system and maintain its external components. They were not taught how to maintain the technical and electronic aspects of the water system.
According to sources, those trained cannot detect what is wrong when the plant stops working.
Kandjala confirmed that when the Germans went back they did not properly train locals on how to repair the plant.
“The region does not have the capacity to fix the plant, because no thorough training was offered to capacitate local technicians to fix the facility. At the moment, feedback is being awaited from technicians who recently came to assess its status,” Kandjala added.
ILENI NANDJATO
Amarika resident Andreas Kayena told Namibian Sun that since mid-2017 they have been unable to get water from the plant, which has worked on and off since the time it was handed over in 2010.
In 2006, CuveWaters, a German/Namibian research project, through Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), using funds from the German education and research ministry, started installing two solar-powered desalination plants at Amarika and Akutsima at a cost of N$200 million.
Regional council PRO Simeon Kandjala confirmed the Amarika desalination plant is out of order and that the region has no capacity to fix it.
Gundula Perry from the German embassy in Namibia, however, told Namibian Sun in 2016 that almost all the spare parts needed for the system can be obtained in Namibia, while additional parts are kept on-site.
She added at the time that Namibian service providers have the expertise to fix even major problems.
Kayena said since 2017 the plant has only been used to store water delivered by a rural water supply truck, before it broke down.
“If it is working, the plant provides us with potable water, but now that it has not worked in a very long time we have given up. There is no other alternative but to get water from our wells, even though they are not in good state,” Kayena said.
“At least we are thankful that even though the plant is not working, there are water storage facilities that rural water supply used when they brought us water with the tanker. At least we could use that water for a while.”
Amarika residents are currently consuming salty, green water from self-created wells, as well as tombo, as they wait for government to purchase tyres for a tanker that used to supply water to rural communities throughout the Omusati Region.
The Amarika and Akutsima desalination system is capable of producing 3.3 cubic metres of clean drinking water daily, but the Amarika plant broke down immediately after it was handed over to the agriculture ministry in 2010.
In 2015, the ministry and CuveWaters agreed on final optimisation and maintenance works.
Amarika residents said the plant was idle for two years, from 2013 until it was repaired in 2015, but it only pumped water for a month and broke down again. Since then it worked on and off until mid-2017, when came to a standstill.
Locals who were trained were only shown how to operate the system and maintain its external components. They were not taught how to maintain the technical and electronic aspects of the water system.
According to sources, those trained cannot detect what is wrong when the plant stops working.
Kandjala confirmed that when the Germans went back they did not properly train locals on how to repair the plant.
“The region does not have the capacity to fix the plant, because no thorough training was offered to capacitate local technicians to fix the facility. At the moment, feedback is being awaited from technicians who recently came to assess its status,” Kandjala added.
ILENI NANDJATO
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