[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
dam-l Nujoma's big water dreams/LS
>From Business Day.
>
>
> 14 June 1999
> Namibia to scrutinise
> water plan
>
> Christof Maletsky
>
>
> WINDHOEK - Namibia is to spent R500000 this year on
> a feasibility study of a plan to import water from the
> Congo River, President Sam Nujoma's long-cherished
> dream.
>
> Nujoma is on record as saying that Namibia's water woes
> would be solved permanently if the country could tap into
> the river, estimated to be more than 2000km away.
>
> Nujoma has even mooted the idea of irrigation schemes in
> the Namib Desert modelled on similar projects undertaken
> by Sahara Desert countries.
>
> It is not yet known how much it would cost Namibia and
> other countries in the region to build a pipeline or tunnel
> from the Congo River, which runs through the Democratic
> Republic of Congo.
>
> Nujoma wants the pipeline built at the mouth of the river
> to divert the water that flows into the Atlantic Ocean to
> the Kavango River instead, and also further on to the
> eastern national water carrier, which links central Namibia
> with the north.
>
> Namibia's constant water scarcity is seen by many as one
> of the root causes of its food supply problem. Two years
> ago, for example, the country set in motion emergency
> plans to complete a 250km pipeline of the eastern national
> water carrier.
>
> This move was criticised by environmental groups and
> communities in Botswana, which feared that the
> Okavango basin would dry up and threaten their livelihood.
>
> The government shelved the plan after the country
> received good rains which relieved a life-threatening
> drought.
>
> Namibia's water demand is expected to will have grown
> twofold - from 295-million cubic metres in 1995 - to
> 600-million cubic metres by the year 2020.
>
> The official opposition called Nujoma's dreams unrealistic.
> Democratic Turnhalle Alliance president Katuutire Kaura
> said water from the Congo River would not flow to
> Namibia in the next thousand years.
>
> "It would be easier and cheaper to channel water from the
> mouth of the Kunene River to Henties Bay, Swakopmund
> and Walvis Bay, because at least then the pipeline is on
> our own soil and we are in control of it when it breaks,"
>he
> said.
>
> He cited the Ruacana hydroelectric scheme as an
> example of the kind of problems that could be encountered
> when this was not the case. The scheme was damaged
> during the Angolan liberation war.
>
> His comment on Nujoma's dreams was: "No banana trees
> shall grow in the desert and yoghurt will not come from
> trees."
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::