Select Page

Nationwide dam figures remain below average

Nationwide dam figures remain below average

Windhoek’s three major dams; Von Bach, Omatako and Swakoppoort now only have 25.8% of their full capacity, which means that Windhoekers will have to cut down on water usage by at least 10% per household or business, according to Namwater.

With the first half of the rainy season officially over, Namwater announced that Von Bach Dam received substantial inflow on the last day of 2018 and the first few days of 2019. The level rose from 41.5% of the dam’s full capacity to 52.1% after over 5 million cubic meters of water reached the dam.

The Omatako Dam received 0.4 million/m³ in the same period. The Friedenau Dam and the Goreangab Dam have also seen a slight rise in water levels, as well as the Olushandja Dam in the north of the country.

In the east of the country, dam levels are even lower. The four dams supplying Gobabis are only 3.2% full (compared to 9.8% in 2018). This means, of the 19,256 million/m³ capacity only 0.620 million/m³ is available (compared to 1.895 M/m³ in 2018).

Namwater said that all the dams in the country were filled with 33.6% of their full capacity on Monday, 7 January 2019. This means there is 233,530 M/m³ of water left in all the dams. At the same time last year, a total of 41% (286,231 million/m³) of water was available.

The Hardap Dam in Mariental, the largest dam in Namibia, can store up to 294,593 million/m³, but currently only has 100,721 million/m³ available.

If all 17 dams in the country are full, they store 705,855 million/m³.


 

About The Author

Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys