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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Background ...... 1 1.2 Origin of the Project ...... 1 1.3 The Water Sector ...... 1 1.4 Addressing The Challenge ...... 3 1.5 Project Context and Beneficiaries ...... 4 1.6 Objective of the Project ...... 5 1.7 Structure of the Report ...... 5 2 NATIONAL AND REGIONAL WATER POLICY REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT ...... 7 2.1 Introduction ...... 7 2.2 Historic Context ...... 7 2.3 SADC Regional Water Policy ...... 10 2.4 National Water Policy ...... 11 2.4.1 Introduction ...... 11 2.4.2 The 1993 Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Policy ...... 13 2.4.3 The 2000 National Water Policy ...... 15 2.4.4 The 2008 Water Supply and Sanitation Policy ...... 16 2.5 The 1997 Decentralization Policy ...... 18 2.6 The 2002 National Environmental Health Policy ...... 18 2.7 The Agricultural Policy ...... 20 2.8 Missing Policies ...... 20 2.9 The Millennium Development Goals ...... 20 2.10 Vision 2030 ...... 22 2.11 Conclusion ...... 24 3 NATIONAL WATER LEGISLATION REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT ...... 25 3.1 Introduction ...... 25 3.2 Background ...... 25 3.2.1 Namibia Water Resources Management Review ...... 25 3.2.2 Overview of the Mandatory Framework ...... 26 3.2.3 Laws and Policies that have a Bearing on the Water Sector ...... 28 ii IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Table of Contents

3.2.4 Reference to the Global Water Partnership Experiences ...... 28 3.3 Issue Oriented Baseline Analysis ...... 29 3.3.1 Ownership of Water and the Rights to Usage/Abstraction ...... 29 3.4 Water Quality and Pollution Control ...... 32 3.5 Ground Water Abstraction ...... 33 3.6 Specific Uses of Water ...... 33 3.7 Potential Impact of Other Legislation on the Water Sector and the Preparation of an IWRMP...... 33 3.7.1 Act No. 54 of 1956 Water Act ...... 33 3.7.2 Mountain Catchment Areas Act No. 63 of 1970 ...... 34 3.7.3 Water Research Act No. 34 of 1971 ...... 35 3.7.4 Regional Councils Act, 1992 (Act No 22 of 1992) ...... 35 3.7.5 Namibia Water Corporation Act, 1997 (Act No. 12 of 1997) ...... 35 3.7.6 Water Supply and Sanitation Policy ...... 38 3.8 How Practical is the WRMA in terms of Mandated Governance Structures and Capacity for Implementation and Enforcement ...... 38 3.9 Recommendations - Vital Aspects to be Addressed by the IWRMP ...... 38 4 NATIONAL AND REGIONAL WATER INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT ...... 39 4.1 Introduction ...... 39 4.2 International Experience ...... 39 4.3 National level ...... 40 4.4 Decentralisation ...... 41 4.5 Institutional Landscape ...... 43 4.5.1 International Water Management Institutions ...... 43 4.5.2 National Institutions...... 47 4.6 Situational Assessment ...... 52 4.6.1 Department of Water Affairs ...... 52 4.6.2 Namibia Water Corporation Limited ...... 54 4.6.3 Regional Councils and Local Authorities ...... 54 4.7 Conclusion ...... 55 5 STATUS OF BASELINE DATA FOR RAINFALL ...... 57 iii IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Table of Contents

5.1 Relevance of Climate to the Water Sector ...... 57 5.2 Rainfall ...... 57 5.2.1 Introduction ...... 57 5.2.2 Data Collection ...... 57 5.2.3 Annual Rainfall ...... 62 5.2.4 Rainfall Variability ...... 64 5.2.5 Rainfall Intensity ...... 65 5.3 Evaporation ...... 65 5.4 Other Climatic Determinants ...... 68 5.4.1 Solar Radiation ...... 68 5.4.2 Average Temperatures ...... 68 5.4.3 Wind ...... 68 5.4.4 Relative Humidity ...... 68 5.5 Run-Off, Infiltration and Recharge Processes ...... 68 5.5.1 Introduction ...... 68 5.5.2 Rainfall/Run-Off Modeling ...... 69 5.6 Assessment of Current Situation ...... 71 5.7 Considerations for Improvements ...... 71 6 STATUS OF BASELINE DATA FOR SURFACE WATER ...... 73 6.1 Introduction ...... 73 6.2 Hydrology ...... 73 6.3 Wetlands ...... 76 6.4 Perennial Rivers ...... 77 6.5 Ephemeral Rivers ...... 78 6.6 Water basins ...... 81 6.7 Dams / Reservoirs ...... 83 6.7.1 Introduction ...... 83 6.7.2 Namibia's Major Storage Dams ...... 83 6.7.3 The Effect of Dams on the River Environment ...... 84 6.7.4 Dam Construction Policy ...... 87 6.7.5 Conclusions ...... 87 6.8 Priorities for Water Resources Management ...... 88 iv IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Table of Contents

7 STATUS OF BASELINE DATA FOR GROUNDWATER ...... 89 7.1 Introduction ...... 89 7.2 Data sources ...... 90 7.3 The Geohydrology Division...... 90 7.3.1 Introduction ...... 90 7.3.2 Data quality ...... 91 7.3.3 Coverage ...... 92 7.3.4 Improvement of Coverage...... 92 7.3.5 Limitations ...... 93 7.3.6 Conclusions about monitoring ...... 93 7.3.7 Monitoring ...... 94 7.3.8 Data quality ...... 94 7.3.9 Coverage ...... 96 7.3.10 Improvement of Coverage...... 96 7.3.11 Limitations ...... 96 7.3.12 Conclusions ...... 96 7.3.13 GROWAS Groundwater Database ...... 97 7.4 Directorate Rural Water Supply ...... 99 7.4.1 Introduction ...... 99 7.4.2 Monitoring ...... 100 7.4.3 Data quality ...... 100 7.4.4 Current coverage ...... 100 7.4.5 Improvement of Coverage...... 100 7.4.6 Limitations ...... 100 7.4.7 Conclusions ...... 100 7.5 NamWater ...... 100 7.5.1 Monitoring of Water Production ...... 100 7.5.2 Data quality ...... 101 7.5.3 Current coverage ...... 102 7.5.4 Limitations ...... 103 7.5.5 Conclusions ...... 103 7.6 Local Authorities ...... 103 v IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Table of Contents

7.7 The Tourism industry ...... 104 7.8 Mines ...... 105 7.9 Groundwater Quality Monitoring ...... 105 7.9.1 Introduction ...... 105 7.9.2 Monitoring ...... 105 7.9.3 Data quality ...... 105 7.9.4 Current coverage ...... 108 7.9.5 Aspects where coverage needs to be improved ...... 108 7.9.6 Limitations ...... 109 7.9.7 Conclusions ...... 109 7.9.8 Groundwater recharge ...... 109 7.10 Summary ...... 110 7.11 Conclusions ...... 112 7.12 Recommendations ...... 112 8 STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT ...... 114 8.1 Introduction ...... 114 8.2 Stakeholder Participation ...... 114 8.2.1 Community Based Water Management...... 116 8.2.2 Basin Management Committees ...... 118 8.2.3 Overview of engagement of women and youth ...... 120 8.2.4 Description of awareness creation processes ...... 120 8.2.5 Awareness creation materials ...... 121 8.2.6 Awareness raising events ...... 121 8.2.7 Studies with potential to contribute to awareness creation materials ...... 123 8.2.8 School and tertiary level awareness ...... 124 8.2.9 Awareness creation summary ...... 125 9 GENDER ISSUES CONCERNING IWRM ...... 127 9.1 Introduction ...... 127 9.2 Gender, Water Regulations and Licences ...... 128 9.3 Gender and Water Regulations ...... 128 9.4 Cost sharing and gender ...... 129 9.5 Gender Approach to Water Rights ...... 130 vi IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Table of Contents

10 NATIONAL AND REGIONAL WATER PLANNING REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT. 132 10.1 Introduction ...... 132 10.2 National Water Master Planning ...... 132 10.3 Bulk Water Supply Planning ...... 136 10.4 Rural Water Supply Planning ...... 137 10.5 Integrated Water Resources Management Planning ...... 140 10.6 Conclusion ...... 141 11 INVESTMENT IN WATER SERVICES ...... 142 11.1 Introduction ...... 142 11.2 Defining the Investment Gap ...... 142 11.3 Defining the gap ...... 143 11.4 Assessing the gap ...... 145 11.5 Conclusion ...... 146 12 CONCLUSION ...... 154 13 REFERENCES ...... 157

vii IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation List of Tables

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Water and Sanitation Coverage ...... 17 Table 2.2: MDG Targets ...... 23 Table 3.1: Lists of Laws and Policies ...... 29 Table 5.1: NMS Rain Gauge Network in Namibia ...... 61 Table 6.1: Namibia's Main Storage Dams ...... 83 Table 8.1: Terminology ...... 115 Table 8.2: Understanding Involvement ...... 116 Table 8.3: Gender Representation in Committees ...... 119 Table 8.4: Educational Resources on Water ...... 122 Table 8.5: Summary of Public Involvement in Water Management...... 126 Table 9.1: The Water Resources Management Act and Gender ...... 129 Table 9.2: A Gender Approach to Water Supply and Sanitation ...... 131 Table 10.1: Proposed Rural Water Development Projects ...... 139 Table 10.2: Projects Programmed and Funded by Rural Water Supply ...... 140 Table 11.1: Summary of Budgeted Bulk Water Supply Investments (N$ ‘000) ...... 148 Table 11.2: Summary of Budgeted Rural Water Supply Investments (N$ ‘000) ...... 149 Table 11.3: Summary of Budgeted Investments in Sanitation Infrastructure (N$ ‘000) ...... 150 Table 11.4: Summary of Budgeted Investments in Integrated Water Resources Management (N$ ‘000) ...... 151 Table 11.5: Summary of Budgeted Expenditure for Trans-boundary Water Resources Management Activities (N$ ‘000) ...... 152 Table 11.6: Summary of Budgeted Water Sector Development Investments (N$ ‘000) ..... 153

viii IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation List of Figures

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Organs of State ...... 26 Figure 4.1: Organisation of the OKACOM ...... 45 Figure 4.2: Water Commissions on the Orange River ...... 46 Figure 5.1: Location of NMS Rain Gauges ...... 59 Figure 5.2: Long Term Mean and Median Rainfall in Namibia ...... 63 Figure 5.3: Variability in Annual Rainfall in Namibia ...... 64 Figure 5.4: Mean Monthly Rainfall for Selected Key Stations ...... 65 Figure 5.5: Evaporation Map of Namibia ...... 67 Figure 5.6: Unit Run-off Map of Namibia ...... 70 Figure 6.1: Gauging Stations on Ephemeral and Perennial Rivers ...... 75 Figure 6.2: Location of Wetlands in Namibia ...... 77 Figure 6.3: River Catchments ...... 79 Figure 6.4: Mean Annual Run-offs for Ephemeral Rivers in Namibia ...... 81 Figure 6.5: Political Regions and Water Management Basins ...... 82 Figure 6.6: Location of Main Storage Dams in Namibia ...... 86 Figure 7.1: Aquifers and Groundwater Potential ...... 89 Figure 7.2: DWAF monitoring boreholes ...... 91 Figure 7.3: Distribution of monitoring boreholes ...... 92 Figure 7.4: Distribution and number of monitoring methods ...... 93 Figure 7.5: Water Control Areas ...... 95 Figure 7.6: Irrigation Permit Statistics for the Karst Aquifers ...... 95 Figure 7.7: Distribution of boreholes ...... 98 Figure 7.8: Boreholes with data in the GROWAS database...... 98 Figure 7.9: Rural Water Supply boreholes ...... 99 Figure 7.10: NamWater monitoring data of groundwater abstraction ...... 101 Figure 7.11: NamWater groundwater supply scheme distribution ...... 102 Figure 7.12: Local Authorities with Their Own Water Supply ...... 104 Figure 7.13: Water Quality Map Using Filtered Data ...... 106 Figure 7.14: Water quality map compiled using unfiltered data ...... 107 Figure 7.15: Delineation of saline groundwater areas ...... 108 ix IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation List of Figures

Figure 7.16: Existing monitoring networks and major aquifers ...... 111 Figure 9.1: Legal Framework ...... 128 Figure 10.1: The Water Master Plan ...... 134 Figure 10.2: NamWater Water Master Plan Areas ...... 138 Figure 11.1: Investment Gap ...... 143

x IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation List of Abbreviations

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AfDB African Development Bank AMCOW African Minister's Council on Water ARC Association of Regional Councils BMC Basin Management Committee CBM Community based management CETN Coastal Environmental Trust of Namibia Comm Communication CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa DHPS Deutsche Höhere Privat Schule DRFN Desert Research Foundation of Namibia DRWS Directorate of Rural Water Supply DWSSC Directorate of Water Supply and Sanitation Coordination DWA Department of Water Affairs (now DWAF) DWAF Department or Water Affairs and Forestry ELAK Environmental Learning and Action in the Kuiseb ERP Every River has its People project EU European Union GEF Global Environmental Facility, GEF SGF GEF small grants fund GWP Global Water Partnership GROWAS Groundwater Database ICWE International Conference on Water and the Environment IDWSSD International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade IRBM Integrated River Basin Management IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management IWRMP Integrated Water Resources Management Plan LA Local Authorities MAWF Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry MAWRD Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development (now MAWF) MDG Millennium Development Goals xi IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation List of Abbreviations

MHSS Ministry of Health and Social Services MLGHRD Ministry of Local and Regional Government, Housing and Rural Development MET Ministry of Environment and Tourism MTEF Mid Term Expenditure Framework NWRMR Namibian Water Resources Management Review NBR National Botanical Research Institute NWP National Water Policy NNF Namibia Nature Foundation NPC National Planning Commission NORAD Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation Pers. comm Personal communication PON Polytechnic of Namibia RC Regional Council RUWIS Rural Water Information System SABRINA The Study of Alluvial Bed Recharge, Induced and Natural SFA Strategic focus area SIDA Swedish International Development Agency TDS Total dissolved solids UNAM University of Namibia UNDP United Nations Development Programme USAID United States Agency for International Development WWGN Wetland Working Group of Namibia WAC Water Advisory Council WAMI Water Area Management Institution WARFSA Water Research Fund for Southern Africa WASP Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Policy (1993) WATERNET Network of Education and Knowledge Institutes in Southern and Eastern Africa WMA Water Resource Management Agency WPA Water Point Association WSASP Water Supply and Sanitation Policy (2008) WSSD World Summit on Sustainable Development WRMA Water Resource Management Act, 2004 (Act 24 of 2004) 1 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND The implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been identified as an essential strategy for the development, sustainable utilisation, conservation and protection of the water resources in Namibia. To date, a vast array of activities which can be seen as supporting IWRM, have resulted in a plethora of approaches, policies, legislation, plans and strategies, all of them attempting to reach the same overall goals of integrated management and sustainable water use in Namibia. In order to consolidate these activities in a comprehensive plan for the future, the Government decided to develop an integrated water resources management plan (IWRMP) for Namibia

1.2 ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT In November 2004 the Global Water Partnership in Southern Africa hosted a workshop at the WATERNET/WARFSA Symposium in Windhoek where the implementation of IWRM and the development of water efficiency plans were introduced and encouraged in Southern Africa. A number of countries responded, but Namibia lacked resources. In early 2006 the Namibian delegation attending a meeting of the African Minister's Council on Water (AMCOW) had discussions with representatives of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to obtain assistance for Namibia to develop an IWRMP. The AfDB offered funding to support Namibia to develop an IWRMP. In April 2006 the Namibia Water Partnership hosted a planning workshop to discuss the implementation of IWRM in Namibia. The Namibia Water Partnership subsequently elaborated a proposal for the development of an IWRMP for Namibia on behalf of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF). This document was submitted to the AfDB in May 2006 by the DWAF. The AfDB responded positively to the request for support in their appraisal report published in December 2006. On 29 May 2007 an Agreement was signed between the AfDB and the DWAF to prepare an IWRMP for Namibia. This was followed by the appointment of consultants in February 2009 to develop the IWRMP.

1.3 THE WATER SECTOR The water sector makes a considerable contribution to the economy of Namibia because water is an essential commodity for the maintenance all livelihoods, especially in an arid environment. The water sector priorities focus on providing basic water supply and sanitation services to all Namibians, at an affordable cost. This will be achieved through the combined efforts of the government and the beneficiaries of water supply projects, based on community participation and the acceptance of mutual responsibility. The sector priorities are guided by a number of policies developed within the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Affairs and Forestry. These are the 2 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Introduction

• 1993 Water and Sanitation Sector Policy which resulted in the allocation of water related functions and responsibilities, the restructuring of the Ministry and the establishment of a Directorate of Rural Water Supply, as well as the creation of a bulk water supply company, the Namibia Water Corporation Ltd. (NamWater). • 2000 National Water Policy White Paper which was adopted by Government after water sector priorities were re-examined and realigned under the Namibia Water Resources Management Review (NWRMR). The National Water Policy White Paper, hereinafter referred to as the National Water Policy (NWP) has be developed in line with IWRM principles and further elaborated, under the Water Sector Planning Process (2005), which highlighted the need to address development in four key water sectors i.e., irrigation, rural water supply, urban water supply and mining as well as the initiation and implementation of the basin management approach. • 2008 Water Supply and Sanitation Policy which revised the allocation of responsibilities in the water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector, and gave specific coordination functions to the proposed Directorate of Water Supply and Sanitation Coordination in the MAWF. The policies, guidelines, legislation and associated processes in other sectors and sub- sectors of the Namibian economy, such as environment and tourism, mining, agriculture and health have also assisted the DWAF in setting priorities in the water sector. The Water Resources Management Act (WRMA), Act 24 of 2004, promulgated by Parliament in December 2004, is not only based on Namibian water policies and internationally accepted IWRM principles, but will provide the legal support and the overall guidance for the implementation IWRM after the act, which is presently under revision, entered into force. The broad priorities of the Namibian water sector are to • Achieve the efficient allocation and assured, safe supply of water to the users; • Ensure equitable access to water and sanitation services; • Contribute to long-term social and economic development; • Ensure the environmental sustainability of water use and re-use; • Maintain water quality and prevent pollution; • Achieve full participation of all the stakeholders in water issues; • Develop a strong institutional capacity from the local to the national level. • Secure access to water from the perennial rivers The key constraint for future water management was identified as the lack of an overall integrated water resources management plan that guides the above efforts towards improved, more effective and efficient water management in Namibia. 3 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Introduction

1.4 ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGE Water resource management in Namibia is complicated by the fact that the mean annual precipitation is unpredictable, low, unreliable, variable, erratic and spatially unevenly distributed across the country. Namibia is the most arid country in Southern Africa because only about 2% of the rainfall ends up as surface run-off and a mere 1% becomes available to recharge the groundwater. The internal annual renewable water resources available from the ephemeral rivers and groundwater sources are estimated as 500 million cubic metres (Mm³/a) and is not much if the size of the country and the socio-economic needs of the growing population is considered. Fortunately Namibia has access to internationally shared perennial and ephemeral water resources in the Kunene, Cuvelai Okavango, Orange and Zambezi river systems, on the northern and southern borders of the country. Although Namibia is a downstream country in these watercourse systems, the country is entitled to a reasonable and equitable share of the water, but this is access subject to negotiation between the basin States according to international water law. This means that the implementation of an IWRMP has both a national and an international perspective. Water can be seen as a limiting factor in all facets of development in Namibia. The lack of water affects the availability of water to meet the demands for basic human needs, agricultural production, mining, industrial development, manufacturing and power generation. The low and unreliable rainfall severely restricts the possibilities for reliable food production through dryland crop farming. Irrigation can improve the situation, but it is mostly restricted to the areas adjacent to the perennial rivers and consumes huge quantities of water due to high evaporation and marginal soils. Stock farming is practiced over most of the country, but the availability of grazing is subject to adequate rainfall and droughts are frequent. The two major demands on water resources in Namibia are either at urban centres, or agriculture in both the communal and commercial farming areas. This demand constitutes 91% of the total water demand, which is expected to rise from 300 Mm³/a in 2000 to 600 Mm³/a by 2020. In 2004 the Government launched Vision 2030 for Namibia and this provides the overarching framework for the development of the country with the main goals aiming at improving the quality of life of the people and achieving the status of a developed country by the year 2030. Water resources development will significantly contribute to the achievement of the goals Vision 2030 and in this respect provides guidelines for the water sector policy, water sector objectives and a strategy to achieve the required goals. The water sector goals are specifically aligned to the existing water policies, the water legislation, the 2007/08 – 2011/12 Water Sector Strategic Plan (MAWF 2007) and other initiatives such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy and National Poverty Reduction Action Programme. The overarching goals for the water sector are also fully aligned to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) and the WRMA will provide the legal context to meet water management requirements in the future, once implemented. The water supply challenges in Namibia can only be addressed through a high degree of efficient water resources management including the establishment of an integrated institutional framework and the provision of infrastructure to ensure water security. Namibia 4 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Introduction

will have to stake its claim on the international water resources shared with Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and the Zambezi basin States to augment the water supplies in the interior of the country. Meeting the water demands of Namibia from the major international river systems necessitates closer cooperation with the member States of the SADC within the framework and spirit provided for by the Revised SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses (Hereinafter referred to as the Water Protocol). Namibia will increasingly have to use the maximum potential offered from transboundary water resources and hence has taken steps to ensure sustainable cooperation with the riparian States. The proposed IWRMP is envisaged to be concrete, realistic, feasible, affordable, executable, and practical plan, supported by all stakeholders (with ownership and clear roles and responsibilities), addressing capacity building issues and funded to the extent that the plan will make a real difference to support sound and sustainable socio-economic development in Namibia. The key future challenge in the water sector will be to address the technical, institutional, financial and socio-economic issues under a consolidated, national IWRMP within the time framework of Vision 2030.

1.5 PROJECT CONTEXT AND BENEFICIARIES The overall objective of the project is to develop an IWRMP for Namibia, based on international norms as supported by the GWP through public participation and the use of existing, acceptable water development policies and legislation. The Namibian Government and the population will be the overall beneficiary of the project. The DWAF in the MAWF is mandated to ensure equitable, sustainable, efficient and effective water use and management in Namibia. The DWAF, as the key Department in Government responsible for water resources management, and all other stakeholders, from the rural water point committees to the bulk water supplier must be furnished with a suitable framework under which to implement and operate the WRMA. Although national institutions in the water sector have taken a holistic approach to integrated water resources management, the policy directives and legislative instruments in place at the moment in other sectors remain highly sectoral and fragmented. Some functions and responsibilities are largely duplicated and the spheres of mandates are unclear and uncoordinated leading to inefficiency. The project will therefore address the challenges to the full implementation of IWRM, such as limited technological and human capabilities for hydrological and ecological assessments, poor database management, the lack of continuous monitoring and updating of information sources, inadequate waste water management and pollution control, inadequate or non-existent infrastructure, the need for better water demand management and the implementation of processes to treat raw water, or to reclaim, reuse and recycle used water. This is further compounded by the lack of institutional and human capacity for effective data collection, service delivery, coordination, regulation and monitoring as well as inadequate mechanisms for addressing gender issues and the enforcement of sound IWRM practices. Finally, it remains a serious challenge to overcome any perception of "limited political will’ to implement IWRM, and without addressing this in a constructive way, any new initiative to implement an IWRMP risks complete failure. 5 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Introduction

Possible threats to water resources management need to be addressed and recommendations made for the formulation of a national strategy as part of the IWRMP. Key steps and; strategies have been identified that need to be elaborated to define the specific actions required and the responsibilities for each actor who must take action in order to achieve the objectives of the IWRMP. Effective stakeholder participation at all levels will be required in all decisions concerning water resources allocations and management, with the focus of capacitating stakeholders for managing specific water related activities, thus ensuring ownership and overall responsibility. The finalisation of the IWRMP will most probably also facilitate the long-term engagement of regional and international development partners and other stakeholders in the development of the water resources of Namibia.

1.6 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT The overall long term impact of the project will be to enable Namibia to achieve a sustainable water resource management regime contributing to social equity, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability in the country. This will result in improved health and sanitary conditions of communities, improved water related livelihoods; gains to agriculture from improved land and water management, as well as reduced risk of floods and droughts. Transboundary cooperation about the beneficial use of shared water resources will be greatly enhanced, leading to joint project implementation and operational management. These achievements will also contribute to the SADC vision of regional integration and poverty alleviation. The outcome of the project is the implementation of a holistic, integrated approach to water resource use and management in the framework of the national IWRMP. This will result in the achievement of greater equitable access to water, ensuring gender equity and social welfare; improved sanitation, and safe waste disposal; increased security from natural disasters; improved agricultural production and efficient water management; as well as beneficial transboundary cooperation on sharing water. From this perspective Namibia will take implementation actions with respect to the Framework for Action of the Southern African Vision for Water Life and Environment as adopted at Second World Water Forum in 2000. The study will extend over a period of 18 months. The scope of the study will cover various disciplines including water resources such as hydrology and hydrogeology, water supply, waste water management and sanitation, water resources development, environmental protection, capacity building, institutional aspects, international water law and economics. The work will be done within the guidelines of existing policies, legislation, programs and frameworks, as well as proposing adaptations and modifications where appropriate.

1.7 STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT This report deals with a review and assessment of the existing situation and is the first of four theme reports as part of the consolidation of a national water development strategy and action plan. The four reports will cover the following: 6 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Introduction

• 1. Review and Assessment of the Existing Situation • 2. The Assessment of Resources Potential and Development Needs • 3. Formulation of a Water Demand Management Strategy and Guidelines • 4. Preparation of a National Water Development Strategy and Action Plan The first report is structured in the following way: • Introduction • National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment • National and Regional Legal Review and Assessment • National and Regional Institutional Review and Assessment • Status of Baseline Data for Climate, • Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water, • Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater • Stakeholder Engagement • Gender Issues Concerning IWRM • National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment • Conclusion

7 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

2 NATIONAL AND REGIONAL WATER POLICY REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT

2.1 INTRODUCTION The administration of water affairs in Namibia is based on a number of pillars. These are the Constitution of the country, water policy, water law and water regulations promulgated in terms of the water legislation. Article 95 of the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia deals with the maintenance of the welfare of the people. The adoption of water, sanitation and environmental policies, is facilitated by the provisions of Article 95 (l) which states that the Government must adopt policies for the maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes and the biological diversity of the country, as well as the utilization of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future. This chapter deals with the historic background to international water policy development and an assessment of the development of regional and national water policy in the international and local context

2.2 HISTORIC CONTEXT The rationale behind the decision of the Government to embark upon the development of an Integrated Water Resources Management Plan (IWRMP) for Namibia country is vested in the need to improve the management of scarce water resources, as well as accepting the concepts and principles for sustainable water use that evolved and have been adopted by the international water community since the groundbreaking United Nations (UN) Conference on Water at Mar del Plata in Argentina in 1977. The Conference confirmed the identified vulnerable and finite nature of water resources and advocated the need for taking an integrated approach to the development and management of water resources. This led to the implementation of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IDWSSD) between 1981 and in 1990. The Global Consultations on Safe Water and Sanitation, held in New Delhi in 1990, recognized that this effort significantly accelerated the provision of safe water and sanitation in many developing countries, but the success was overtaken by the rate of population growth. Namibia became independent in 1990 and attended the Consultations, but did not benefit from the IDWSSD initiative and was therefore confronted with a huge backlog in rural water and sanitation services. In spite of this disadvantage, the country managed to obtain donor support and provided resources to erase most of the backlog in rural water services during the past 15 years, while the backlog in rural sanitation services is at present receiving special attention. In Mar del Plata, centralized water management solutions were encouraged. Governments were supposed to have the primary responsibility for providing water services and also for protecting water resources from quality degradation. However, there has been a continuous evolution of thoughts on water management over time the importance of local participation and an integrated approach discussed at recent conferences, constitute a substantial shift from the ideas of centralized solutions proposed in the 1970's and 1980's. 8 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

This shift means that Governments are more considered as the providers of an enabling environment in which private initiatives can function and in which community participation, i.e. local level involvement, is strongly emphasized. This enabled and encouraged new thinking on how water management challenges can be addressed and, in addition, strengthened by utilising indigenous participation and knowledge in the process. These issues were taken further at the International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICWE) in Dublin, Ireland, in January 1992. The conference participants called for fundamental new approaches to the assessment, development and management of freshwater resources, which can only be brought about through political commitment and involvement from the highest levels of government to the smallest communities. Commitment will need to be backed by substantial and immediate investments, public awareness campaigns, legislative and institutional changes, technology development, and capacity building programs. One very important outcome was the formulation of the four Dublin Principles reflected briefly in the textbox on the next page. A few months after Dublin Statement was made, the world leaders assembled at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992 commended the work done in Dublin, and adopted the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, as well as Agenda 21 and a number of other documents such as the Framework Convention on Climate Change. The conference participants, that included a delegation from Namibia, agreed that urgent action is needed to reverse the prevailing trends of over consumption, pollution, and rising threats from drought and floods. It was confirmed that capacity building through human resources development and overall community participation is required, but private sector investments must be more actively promoted as an additional source of knowledge and financing for water supply and sanitation services, including improved irrigation practices and other water related services. All governments were requested to study the specific activities and means of implementation recommended in the Conference Report, and to translate those recommendations into urgent action programmes for sustainable water management and development

The Dublin Principles 1. Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment 2. Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy- makers at all levels 3. Women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water 4. Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good

9 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

In December 1992 the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was established by the UN General Assembly to serve as a high-level UN forum to discuss sustainable development issues and to ensure effective follow-up to the Rio Summit. The CSD meets annually at the UN Headquarters. The view in Dublin that centralized and sectoral approaches to water resources development and management are insufficient when addressing local water management issues and that governments should actively seek the involvement of local actors, including the private sector and non-Governmental Organisations was supported at the Ministerial Conference on Drinking Water and Environmental Sanitation held at Huis ter Duin in the Netherlands in March 1994. The participants at the Conference, including a delegation from Namibia, submitted an Action Programme and recommendations to the CSD which, inter alia, proposed that Governments should develop the legal and institutional framework to support participation and partnership in the community management of water and sanitation services, to strengthen local institutions, to provide access to information, to support public education and to develop capacity building programmes. An internationally produced Comprehensive Freshwater Assessment (CFWA) was submitted to the CSD in April 1997. That document clearly demonstrated the extent to which continued mismanagement of water resources can become a major obstacle to social prosperity and economic development. The CSD submitted the document to Special Session of the UN General Assembly in June 1997 and the General Assembly called for the highest priority to be given to the serious freshwater problems facing many regions, especially in the developing world, and called for a dialogue among governments aiming “at building a consensus on the necessary actions, and .....considers initiating a strategic approach for the implementation of all aspects of the sustainable use of freshwater for social and economic purposes....“. The led to the Millennium Summit in New York in 2000 where the Millennium Development Goals were formulated and adopted, followed two years later by the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. The WSSD adopted a Plan of Implementation that contains targets and timetables to spur action on a wide range of water related issues, including halving the proportion of people who lack access to clean water or proper sanitation by 2015. The Plan also called for all countries to "develop integrated water resource management and water efficiency plans by 2005" The Global Water Partnership (GWP), formally founded in 1996 by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), provides a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue at global, regional, national and local levels to promote integrated approaches towards more sustainable water resources development, management and use. The GWP actively developed and promoted the concept of integrated water resources management which aims to ensure the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources in order to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital environmental systems. As such, IWRM is a comprehensive, participatory planning and implementation tool for managing and developing water resources in a way that balances social and economic needs as well as ensuring the 10 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

protection of ecosystems for future generations. An IWRM approach is an open, flexible process, bringing together decision-makers across the various sectors that impact water resources, and bringing all stakeholders to the table to set policy and make sound, balanced decisions in response to specific water challenges.

2.3 SADC REGIONAL WATER POLICY Since the mid 1990's SADC Member States have engaged in wide ranging and intense consultations on the development of the water sector in the region. This brought about an acute awareness of the importance of water for socio-economic development, regional integration and poverty reduction. However, there are a number of institutional, technical, economic, social and environmental factors which still constrain effective management of the water resources in the SADC. These include: • Weak legal and regulatory frameworks. • Inadequate institutional capacity of national water authorities, and river basin organizations. • Weak policy framework for the sustainable development of national water resources. • Poor information acquisition, management and dissemination systems. • Low levels of awareness, education and training with respect to economic, social, environmental and political issues related to water resources development and management. • Lack of effective public participation by all stakeholders, particularly women and the poor. • Inadequate infrastructure to meet the growing demands for water and sanitation services. These issues are being addressed through a number of programmes and projects that form part of the Regional Strategic Action Plan for Integrated Water Resources Development and Management in the SADC Countries (RSAP-IWRM) which is now a component of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) of SADC. The RSAP is implemented by the SADC Secretariat through the Water Division in the Directorate of Infrastructure and Services. The SADC Regional Water Policy (SADC 2006) was formulated through a highly participatory and consultative process over a period of about 12 months. Diverse stakeholders, including senior government officials from ministries dealing with economics, law, water resources, agriculture, energy, and environment participated. Other stakeholders included academic and research institutions, private companies, consultants in various disciplines, as well as representatives of local and regional NGOs, and community leaders The Regional Water Policy for the SADC provides a framework for 11 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

• The sustainable, integrated and coordinated development, utilization, protection and control of national and transboundary water resources in the SADC region; • The promotion of socio-economic development and regional integration • The improvement of the quality of life of all people in the region. The Regional Water Policy framework is anchored in • The SADC Declaration and Treaty, • The Southern African Vision for Water, Life and Environment, • The Revised SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses and • The Dublin Principles. The policy principles for water resources management were developed from the documents mentioned and the policy structure has nine thematic policy areas which address the water resources management issues outlined above. There are more than 35 policy statements in the document and most of them are of a generic nature, common to most water policies, but more directed at a regional approach. This makes the Regional Policy very comprehensive, covering basically all water management issues. The Regional Water Policy will be implemented through a Regional Water Strategy (SADC 2007) and an important vehicle for implementing the policy is the existence of well functioning transboundary river basin organisations. These institutions should operate under sound national policy and legislation, as well as systems for planning and stakeholder involvement, embracing IWRM principles. In order for the Regional Water Policy to be implemented at national level, Member States would need to harmonise their policies with the Regional Water Policy. It is also fundamentally important that there should be closer coordination of the National and Regional Water Policy with other sectoral policies in the SADC, especially the major water use sectors including, trade, agriculture, energy and environment. Inter-sectoral coordination at the SADC level would be an important building block for integrated water resources development and management, which is the basis for sustainable development.

2.4 NATIONAL WATER POLICY

2.4.1 Introduction Water policy in Namibia is tailored to the availability of water in an arid, developing country and the specific needs of the population. Namibia formulated three water policies since independence and they are the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Policy (WASP), adopted in 1993 (DWA 1993), the National Water Policy White Paper, hereafter referred to as the National Water Policy (NWP), adopted in 2000 (MAWRD 2000) and the Water Supply and Sanitation Policy (WSASP) which was adopted in (DWAF 2008a). What should also be kept in mind is that water policy has a formal and an informal side. It is possible that within the framework of formal, generic policy statements, such as the NWP, 12 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

and the subsequent legislation to formalize the practical implementation of certain policies, there are many internal water management policies which are not enforced by law, but is practiced in the general administration of water matters. Some of these policies are contained in the regulations promulgated in terms of the law, others may be based on Cabinet decisions and some may form part of the daily decisions by the Management of the MAWF or the DWAF. The overall water planning and management functions, as well as the broad division of responsibilities within the water supply and sanitation sector are of extreme importance to achieve successful water management. The most important functions that are primarily the responsibility of the Government is the development of water policy and water legislation, the promulgation of water regulations, the strategic planning of water development and exercising control over the development, utilization, conservation and protection of the natural water resources of the country. This control is vested in the administration of the water legislation (DWA 1991). The need for potable water and basic sanitation services in Namibia was identified at independence as one of the major and basic essential needs that has to be improved, especially in communal areas. The Constitution of the Republic of Namibia clearly provides for the Government to assume responsibility for the overall management of the water and sanitation sector. It further stands to reason that the Government should be clear about its objectives and policies. Government should furthermore ensure that these responsibilities are carried out efficiently by appropriately structured institutions and with the best coordination possible between the various Governmental authorities, the private sector, consumers and other beneficiaries. In November 1990 the Government took the first step to achieve these objectives when an Inter-ministerial Committee was established to investigate the water and sanitation sector with the objective to recommend a water supply and sanitation sector policy. The proposed Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Policy was adopted in 1993, as stated above. In March 1998 the Government decided to initiate a water resources management review to assess: • The existing arrangements for managing water resources and services; • The sustainable development of freshwater resources; • The equitable access to safe water by especially the rural and urban poor; • Measures to ensure long-term social and economic development. The Namibia Water Resources Management Review (NWRMR) took a fresh, progressive look at the advances and initiatives in water resource management that have been made in both Namibia and elsewhere in the world. On this basis a set of new approaches and policies were recommended to address the contemporary challenges facing the country in conserving its limited and vulnerable resource base and to extend reliable water and sanitation services to the population. This work led to the adoption of the NWP in 2000. The NWP provides for community participation to lowest appropriate level in water resources 13 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

management and the development of basin management plans that will serve as inputs to the national water master plan. Due to new developments in the water supply and sanitation sector in Namibia and the slow progress in improving sanitation services, the Government called for a review of the WASP. This work was recently completed and a new Water Supply and Sanitation Policy (WSASP) was adopted by Government in 2008. The 2000 NWP and the 2008 WSASP will be reviewed, with a brief reference to the 1993 WASP, to determine to what extent the adopted policies support the preparation and implementation of the proposed IWRMP for Namibia. The existing water policies and water development plans of service providers such as NamWater, the Directorate Rural Water Supply in the DWAF, the Local and Regional Authorities, as well as the plans of the basin management committees, will be assessed and taken into consideration when developing a national IWRMP for the country. A few of the formal and informal policy issues that relate to the management of water abstraction, water allocation, water supple infrastructure development and pollution control will be discussed and assessed.

2.4.2 The 1993 Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Policy After independence there was a newly structured Government with a new civil service. It soon became clear that certain water and sanitation functions were done by various Ministries and overlapped because the responsibilities for water supply and sanitation services were not clearly identified and defined. This led to the preparation of the WASP that formulated the long term sector policy and defined the allocation of water supply and sanitation functions to be executed by the respective Ministries. The WASP policy stated that • Essential water supply and sanitation services must become available to the whole population, and should be accessible at a cost that is affordable to the country as a whole. • The equitable improvement of services should be achieved by the combined efforts of the Government and the beneficiaries, based on community involvement, community participation and the acceptance of a mutual responsibility. • Communities should have the right, with due regard for the needs of the environment and the resources available, to determine which solutions and service levels are acceptable to them. • Beneficiaries should contribute towards the cost of services at increasing rates for standards of living exceeding the levels required for providing basic needs. • The environmentally sustainable development and utilization of the water resources of the country should be pursued in addressing the various needs. 14 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

The WASP not only dealt extensively with the issue of providing water and sanitation services, but also the recovery of costs. The tariff principles adopted related to rural water supply, urban water supply, irrigation water and subsidies As far as the rural water supply and the tariff policy principles are concerned there should be an agreement between the community and the relevant authorities, as a prerequisite for government support, to define mutual responsibilities and commitments. Payment by the community for operation and maintenance costs should, as a general rule, always apply, although there may be cases where a subsidy may be granted. Government support should also be reconsidered if conditions are not complied with. Because of the great variation in conditions in general throughout Namibia it was recommended that a system for individual assessment of the need for any subsidy should be worked out and that affordability of services by the community should constitute a consideration. Considering the paucity of water in Namibia, the tariff structure principles for urban water supply should encourage water conservation and reduce wastage through the application of progressive and differentiated tariffs. The tariff structure may also be designed to provide for cross-subsidies. It was therefore recommended that the future tariff structure should have a fixed, low price for a defined minimum lifeline volume of water. The water tariffs for mining, industrial and commercial enterprises should, as far as possible, recover the full financial costs of the water services. The direct and immediate recovery of costs for the supply of water to erven (i.e. local distribution) could also be considered as plot-related investments. The tariffs should be subject to administrative approval by the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development (based on recommendation by the Permanent Secretary) in order to ensure that they will comply with ruling Government policy and that any adjustments in tariffs or tariff structures are warranted and justified. With the tariff policy as recommended it would be appropriate to enforce payment for water, for the few who still cannot afford to pay, assistance should be given from a social security vote, to be provided for by the authority responsible for these social services in any specific urban area, rather than to circumvent the water revenue collection system. In the case of Irrigation water it was approved that where water is supplied by the Government, irrigation water should be charged at an economic rate, which may pending consideration by Cabinet, be reduced through a special subsidy determined by the value of the produce relative to its socio-economic benefits. Such a subsidy should also be budgeted for by the line Ministry responsible for agricultural support. The policy not only defined the responsibilities of the different institutions, but suggested the investigation into the establishment of institutions respectively dedicated to rural water supply and the commercialization of the bulk water supply function. The WASP principles provided a firm set of policy guidelines that formed the basis for further expansion of the water and sanitation sector in Namibia. These principles were also in line with an increasing awareness promoted internationally of the importance of all water resources, the value of water as a commodity and the necessity for any development of the 15 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

water and sanitation sector to be undertaken in a sustainable manner. The latter is consistent with the principles of IWRM that was formulated later in the nineties by the GWP. With the acceptance of the WASP principles, a foundation was laid, but the growth in water and sanitation coverage depended to a large extent on the dedicated pursuance of the objectives and strategies identified in the policy development process. As recommended in the WASP, the creation of a dedicated organisation to deal efficiently with rural water supply was investigated and in 1993 the Directorate of Rural Water Supply (DRWS) was established in the then Department of Water Affairs in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development (MAWRD) to improve access to safe water for communities in rural, communal areas. The establishment of DRWS is one of the success stories of the WASP and laid the foundation for the successful implementation of a dynamic strategy, known as Community Based Management (CBM). This strategy involved extensive user participation in water supply and management in the form of Water Point Associations, their representative Water Point Committees and Local Water Associations with Local Water Point Committees. The WASP also proposed an investigation into the feasibility to commercialize bulk water supply services and that led to the establishment of NamWater in 1997, a State owned enterprise responsible for bulk water supply. This company took over the bulk water supply functions that were previously the responsibility of the Department of Water Affairs. After this event, the Department was also restructured and the Directorate Resource Management replaced the Directorate Investigations and Research.

2.4.3 The 2000 National Water Policy Towards the end of the nineties the urgency to develop new water supply infrastructure, imposed by the rapid expansion of water use in Namibia, was of great concern. There were already signs of environmental degradation while the renewable water supplies were over utilised and the non-renewable sources were slowly being depleted. In this regard, the sustainable development of the country and consequently the well-being of the whole population, now and in the future, depended on the development of a new policy that took integrated water resources management into consideration. In developing the policy it was recognised that effective water resources management is fundamental to social prosperity and economic progress in Namibia. Water resources management issues were examined, including those that apply to the issue of international waters, to define means to ensure water security, and to sustain the supply of water to urban centres while extending services in the rural areas. In economic terms the country is highly dependent on its natural resource base for its principal productive activities such as agriculture, mining, fishing, industry, manufacturing and wildlife-based tourism. Water is the single most important natural resource that contributes to the development potential of Namibia, and conversely, the vulnerability of the scarce water resources to inadequate management, constitute the single most important threat to the development opportunities in the country. The successful implementation of the policy recommendations was therefore of paramount importance. 16 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

The National Water Policy accepted water as an economic good but recognised the importance of subsidies for the provision of water to the poor, including access to a basic minimum quantity of clean water, which is often seen as a basic human right. Under tariff setting it was proposed that actual financial costs, environmental degradation and opportunity costs will be taken into account in establishing tariff policies. This Policy also refers to the role of an Independent Regulator to regulate all state run utilities and parastatals including private service providers. The regulation of water pricing by NamWater and Local Authorities is also covered in the Policy.

2.4.4 The 2008 Water Supply and Sanitation Policy Since the adoption of the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Policy (WASP) in 1993, Namibia can be applauded for achieving huge successes in providing accessibility to safe water for the rural population. Coverage increased from 43% in 1991 to 80% 2001 and since then to more than 85% at present. However, in 1993 the WASP allocated the rural sanitation function to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS), together with other stakeholders providing supplementary roles. The Namibian water and sanitation sector has undergone several constructive changes in order to meet the realities of the day and since independence Namibia not only adopted the WASP in 1993 and the NWP in 2000, but through the MHSS a National Environmental Health Policy (2002) and a National Strategy on Rural Sanitation (2004) were adopted as sanitation sector guiding instruments. The MHSS also developed the National Strategy for Rural Sanitation (NSRS) to improve sanitation provision and coverage by providing the rural population with ventilated improved pit (VIP) dry latrine technology. The Namibia Demographic Health Survey done in 2006 (NDHS 2006) revealed that sanitation coverage in Namibia is low with a national coverage of less than 40%. In addition, there are large disparities between rural and urban areas, with 85% of households in urban areas having sanitary toilets, compared to only 19 % of rural households. The provision and the coverage of sanitation services is thus lagging far behind as shown in Table 2.1, which was prepared for a report on the progress of Namibia towards the implementation the Millennium Development Goals formulated in the Millennium Declaration adopted by the UN and endorsed by Namibia in 2000. Despite the adoption of policies and strategies in sanitation, as well as the success in providing rural water supply services, it is clear from Table 2.1 that the sanitation sector has not progressed according to expectations. The magnitude of the sanitation backlog in communal rural areas and informal urban settlements is not only unacceptable, but increasing and deserved serious attention. This unfortunate situation and several other developments in the water and sanitation (WSS) sector, such as the overall lack of coordination in the sector, the need for an equitable tariff policy and a water regulator, limited human resource capacity and inadequate cost recovery for water supply and sanitation services were a major challenge and key components and that necessitated a review of the WASP.

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Table 2.1: Water and Sanitation Coverage

Progress in percent Progress Indicator towards 1991 2001 2006 2015 Target Target Target Rural population with access to safe drinking 45 80 80 87 Good water Urban population with access to safe drinking 99 98 +95 100 Good water Rural population with access to basic 15 21 50 65 Slow sanitation Urban population with access to basic 89 82 98 Worsening sanitation

In the National Water Policy of 2000 it was contemplated to promulgate the Water Resources Management Act as well as an act to control the role of service providers such as Local Authorities and NamWater. With the amendment of the Water Resources Management Act it became clear that the Local Authorities Act and the Namibia Water Corporation Act are clear on their functions. For proper control of service providers it is only required to adopt a new policy to mandate the Minister responsible for water to regulate the water services through regulations, mandatory reporting, the development of water service plans which address coverage of services, as well as water conservation and water demand management. The role of the Water Regulator was adjusted to a broader function, except for the approval of a maximum water tariff. The main purpose of the Water Regulator is to harmonise the expectations of policy makers, consumers and service providers. The functions of the Water Regulator are to: • Control tariff increases taking equitable access to the poor into account in accordance with the national water and sanitation tariff policy; • Maintain financial viability of water and sanitation service providers • Set targets for efficiency improvements by service providers which cover the provision of services as well as efficiency of service providers. The WSASP adopted in 2008 replaced the WASP of 1993. Its principles are in line with IWRM including a strong focus on water demand management (WDM). The scope of services expected to be rendered within the sector is defined and responsibilities are allocated to the various actors and beneficiaries involved. Nevertheless, the acceptance of the WSASP by all stakeholders represents only a foundation from which to work. The productivity and growth of the WSS sector will, to a large extent, depend on political will at all levels, the provision of adequate funding, the continuous development of adequate human resources, community participation and the dedicated implementation of the identified strategies by all role players to achieve the objectives of the policy. 18 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

2.5 THE 1997 DECENTRALIZATION POLICY In September 1997 the Ministry of Regional, Local Government and Housing developed a Decentralization Policy for the Republic of Namibia. The main aim in the long term is to decentralise most of the Government functions to the lowest possible level taking capacity and resources into account. All government functions presently implemented by line ministries at regional and local authority levels should eventually be decentralised either to the Regional Councils or to Local Authorities. The decentralisation model was based on the principles of Deconcentration, Delegation and Devolution as summarised below from the document: 1 Deconcentration is when central government decentralises its own staff to sub- national levels to carry out their regular functions closer to the people they serve or are proposed to interface with for whatever purpose. While this may achiee greater access and more interface to central government services, it does not allow any participation by the population in any form of decision making. 2 Delegation is when central government allocates some of its functions to the sub- national levels to carry out, but not to take full responsibility for, and without abrogating its own public accountability or those functions. This usually happens through the executive rather than the legislature. 3 Devolution involves the central state, either by legislation or through constitutional requirements, giving full responsibility and public accountability for certain functions to the sub-national level Which model to use for decentralisation depends on the scope, nature and purpose of the decentralisation envisaged. Often these models are found together in various mixes, sometimes one as the first stage towards another, often starting with deconcentration onwards. In line with the Decentralization Policy, the Decentralisation Enabling Act, 200 (Act No. 33 of 2000) was promulgated by Parliament and Government is currently in the process of transferring rural water supply functions from DRWS to the Regional Councils.

2.6 THE 2002 NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH POLICY The sanitation and hygiene policies and strategy will be discussed as far as it impacts on water and sanitation issues. The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS) developed a National Environmental Health Policy (March 2002). The coverage of sanitation services at that time was elaborated in the document and it was stated that the sanitation coverage or percentage of the population having access to adequate sanitation by the year 2000 was about 85% in urban areas while the coverage in the rural areas was unacceptably low at about 19%, one of the lowest in Africa. Access to safe drinking water was reported to be 70% in the same period for rural populations as compared with about 98% in urban areas (GRN, 2000) Meanwhile, water and sanitation related illnesses (diarrhoea in particular) continued to be a major cause of illness and death. This has been partly attributed to lack of resources and to 19 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

the absence of an effective sanitation and hygiene promotion programme focussed on stimulating household demand for sanitation, as well as addressing the link between sanitation, hygiene and health improvements. In addition, while access to safe drinking water has improved, efforts to provide awareness about water point environmental hygiene, and hygienic storage and use of water between collection at the tap and consumption at home, have been limited. So-called "traditional hazards" related to poverty and under-development in Namibia were also identified and included insufficient and unsafe domestic water supply, food contamination, inadequate basic sanitation and waste disposal, indoor air pollution, natural disasters and vector-borne (which include water) diseases. In April 2004 the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS) developed a National Strategy for Rural Sanitation and the strategy was based on the following principles: 1 The goals, objectives and implementing strategies of this policy shall be mainly guided by the principles outlined in the 1998 Policy Framework of the MHSS. 2 All Namibians shall have equitable access to basic rural sanitation services provided by the MHSS and particular attention shall be paid to regions with low sanitation coverage. 3 Rural sanitation services shall be progressively extended to reach all communities in Namibia and special attention shall be given to the disadvantaged regions and under-served communities with special emphasis paid to vulnerable groups in our country. 4 The provision of rural sanitation services shall be affordable and that meant that affordable technology must be promoted in Namibia. Each technology should therefore have a minimum-cost entry point so that virtually all prospective users will be able to afford the technology, should they want to adopt it. It was also expected from benefiting communities to make their contributions in money or in kind to improve sanitation facilities. 5 The active participation and involvement of communities during initiation, planning and implementation of rural sanitation services will be essential in order to promote the sustainability of the programme. 6 To have a sustainable, long lasting impact on health and well being of the communities, the rural sanitation programme will embark upon capacity building at community level so that skills and knowledge will remain with the community. New sanitation projects should be subjected to sustainability assessment before implementation to make sure that benefiting communities are able to continue building latrines and to improve hygiene after a project ended. Technologies should be simple and include the use of available materials. The National Strategy for Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion was drafted in 2001 to take forward the National Environmental Health Policy. 20 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

2.7 THE AGRICULTURAL POLICY The assessment of this policy relates to possible impacts on water resources and other strategic objectives to improve the livelihoods of the population. In this regard the Cabinet approved (Decision No. 18th/06.08.02/004) a program of investment and promotion of increased food production through irrigation. Government recognised that the most effective way to reduce poverty and improve food security is to raise the productivity of its agricultural resources on which poor people depend for their livelihood. This can be achieved through irrigation development and the Government aims to bring the private sector to remote and underdeveloped areas, thereby building local capacity in terms of production, marketing management and general development. This led to the introduction of the Green Scheme and the adoption of the Green Scheme Policy which was revised in 2008 (MAWF 2008c). In view of the fact that the irrigation is a major consumer of water resources, the policy on irrigation development for food security and job creation may impact adversely on the availability of scarce water resources. The Water Supply and Sanitation Policy provides for priorities for the allocation of water resources under competing demands. Priority 2 is the provision of water for economic activities, which includes irrigation, and the allocation of water must in each individual case be determined by the respective value, including economic multiplier effects by local value addition and social benefits in relation to the overall development objectives of the country. These issues should be accommodated in the proposed IWRMP

2.8 MISSING POLICIES Despite the admirable efforts of the water resources sector in recent years regarding improved resource management several new policies need to be put in place if the goals towards sustainable resource use must be achieved. These may for example include a groundwater protection policy; an ephemeral river catchment policy; clear communal land and water policy; a national water demand management policy and a pollution control policy, especially in view of the anticipated uranium mining developments in the Central Namib Area. Human development demands water, but must also share water resources with the environment. Although the goods, services and vital processes provided by aquatic ecosystems have been acknowledged repeatedly in reports, none of Namibia’s current policies reflect the fact that there is there is a certain amount of water that is necessary to maintain the health of natural aquatic ecosystems. The WRMA is addressing this issue and unlike previous legislation, the Act recognize that the natural environment is a user of water and an important provider of vital processes and services. It also emphasise the importance of planning tools such as environmental assessments so that water pollution from future development activities is controlled and prevented through proper planning, design and management and monitoring.

2.9 THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS The Millennium Summit in New York in 2000 was a landmark occasion that brought together an unprecedented number of nations to form a global consensus on the challenges facing 21 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

humanity and, more importantly, on what needs to be done to overcome these challenges. The resulting Millennium Declaration, subsequently signed by all UN member states including Namibia, has the implication for Namibia that all efforts should be made to free the population, including women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty. As a signatory to the Millennium Declaration, Namibia is committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone and to free the people from want. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are briefly the following, namely to: • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • Achieve universal primary education • Promote greater gender equity and empower women • Reduce child mortality • Improve maternal health • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases • Ensure environmental sustainability • Develop a global partnership for development Target 10, which falls under Goal 7, is to halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe water supply and basic sanitation by the year 2015. One of the constraints to achieve Target 10 is the definition of what is included in and understood by the terms “basic sanitation” and “water supply”. This has an impact of the cost to achieve the target, but there are also other costs associated with the whole package to improve water supply and sanitation. These are hygiene education, the choice and acceptability of the type of sanitation and water supply facilities that is to be established, water treatment and pollution control. The goals of sustainable development, social equity, justice and environmental protection should also not be compromised in the process. It should also be noted that water for people is included in the goal, but not water for industry and agriculture, both relating to job creation and food security. The finalisation of the first report of Namibia on national progress towards achieving the MDGs coincided with the launch of the country’s long term Vision 2030, which will guide Namibia country towards a future of prosperity, harmony, peace and political stability. The achievement of the MDGs, and the monitoring of the activities, forms a critical part of the effort to ensure progress towards the realisation of the Vision. The MDG report shows that since independence in 1990 the country made great progress in providing education and healthcare, managing economic and natural resources as well as increasing the coverage of water and sanitation. At Independence 43% cent of the rural population in Namibia had access to clean and safe water through water supply points along pipelines or at borehole installations. Since then the Government has improved water supply to rural communities through the rehabilitation of existing water schemes, the provision of new boreholes and the development of piped water schemes. As a result the proportion of the population in rural areas with access to safe water has almost doubled. 22 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

In urban areas, access to safe water is now almost universal, but there is still a significant regional variation, for example, in the capital of the Khomas Region 98% of households have access to safe water, while in the capital of the Kavango Region only 62% of households have access. Progress in provision of basic sanitation has been slower. In 1991 just 15% of the rural population had access to basic sanitation such as flush toilet or a ventilated improved pit latrine. Ten years later that share has increased to 21%. The gap between coverage in the urban and rural areas is also wide because access to basic sanitation is four times higher in urban areas. Again, the Khomas Region ranks the highest with almost 80% of households having access to basic sanitation, but in Ohangwena only 10% do. The reduction in access to basic sanitation in urban areas since 1991 is a result of growing informal settlements in the larger towns and cities. Nonetheless, many challenges remain in the fight against poverty, hunger and inequality, improving sanitation services and above all, to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, but to name a few. However, regardless of these issues, the prognosis for achieving the MDGs, will depend to a large extent on sustainable water resources management because it is a cross cutting issue for socio-economic development and would normally include all aspects in the water sector. The need to ensure sustainability in development is also a legal requirement under Article 95 of the Constitution. The improvement of water supply and sanitation services therefore requires the implementation of integrated water resource management, based on full community participation. This is already in the process of being established in the country by Government with the support from non-governmental organizations. This will help to achieve Task 10 under Goal 7, but from the above it is clear that the management of water resources will play a critical role in the process because it relates to most of the social issues, such as poverty, food scarcity, health, environmental sustainability, gender equality and community participation. The suggested partnership for development, as proposed in Goal 8, needs to be established and strengthened to facilitate the achievement of the goals. The Government of Namibia is committed to the principle of adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlement development. As a result, a National Housing Policy was formulated and approved by Cabinet in 1991. The Ministry of Regional, Local Government and Housing therefore formulated several strategies, policies and legislation within the framework of the Habitat Agenda regarding efficiency, effectiveness, adequacy and affordability of housing for all. Several schemes have been implemented, including alienation schemes for old municipal houses to help low-income groups to obtain housing, and the establishment of the National Housing Enterprise to provide housing for low and middle- income households. These urban developments would also require improvement in water and sanitation supply services in developing urban areas and developing rural settlements.

2.10 VISION 2030 The Namibian Vision 2030 is a perception of the future and its goal is to improve the quality of life of the people of Namibia to the level of their counterparts in the developed world, by 2030. The quality of life of rural communities could be significantly improved through access to potable water supply. 23 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

The fundamental importance of water in Namibia has been recognised by the Government. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism commissioned a series of State of the Environment reports, the first of which was on the subject of water. This has provided a baseline on the most important information relating to water, its quantity distribution and uses in the country. The Government also instituted the NWRMR to look at the whole water sector in Namibia and where it could be improved. This has led to the adoption of the NWP for Namibia, which contains far-reaching recommendations with the potential to radically transform water management in the country. The new WRMA proposes that management of water resources will be done on a catchments basis by basin management committees. These committees are to be composed of all affected stakeholders. This should improve both efficiency and equitable allocation of water by empowering people to manage and control this fundamental resource. Social and environmental/ecological sustainability must be ensured concomitantly through a variety of appropriate mechanisms. These include: cross-subsidisation for the poorest people in society; placing a value on the ecological goods and services that wetlands provide; and incorporating the concept of environmental flows and reserves in all legislative processes affecting the environment. Good progress regarding water supply coverage has been made since Independence, and the targets seem reasonable, based on current progress. See Table 2.2. Table 2.2: MDG Targets

Ten year 1996 - 2005 2006 – 2015 2016 - 2025 2026 - 2035 development framework

National NDP 2 NDP 3 NDP 4 NDP 5 NDP 6 NDP 7 Development Plan End date of NDP 2005/06 2010/11 2015/16 2020/21 2025/26 2030/31 Rural water 80% 85% 90% 95% - 100% coverage Full cost recovery 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Decentralisation Delegation Devolution 95% 100% Gender policy 100% implemented Recurrent Budget 423, 668 490, 000 560 650 740 850 (N$ million) Development Budget 294, 533 338, 947 400 455 525 600 (N$ million)

If the implementation continues at the current rate with steady financial and human resources backing the programme, it is predicted that 100 percent coverage for both urban and rural areas can be achieved by the year 2030. The selected targets for the Rural Water Supply are: 24 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Policy Review and Assessment

• Increase water provision to the rural population from 75% in 2000 to 80% by 2006; to 85% by 2010; to 90% by 2015; to 95% by 2020 and to cover 100% of the population by 2030. • Ensure that 50% of all water supplied achieves full cost recovery by 2006; increasing to 60% by 2010; to 70% by 2015; to 80% by 2020; to 90% by 2025 and to 100% by 2030. • Decentralise 95% of regional rural water supply resources to the Regional Councils by 2006 and 100% by 2010. • Implement gender policy with respect to the water sector by 2006. To achieve the targets the strategy to be followed is the encouragement of the active participation of users and beneficiaries in regulating water access and management in rural areas through the further establishment of the rural water point committees. International support to implementing the MDGs, in the form of technical and financial assistance, market access, foreign direct investments, technology transfers and other partnership arrangements, is critical. However, overseas development assistance to Namibia peaked right after Independence with support to the tune of US$130 per capita, but since then support has more than halved. The outlook for development assistance in Namibia is therefore uncertain and in order for the Government to contribute effectively to housing provision for low income groups and rural communities towards Vision 2030, about N$6 billion is required for the next 25 years to benefit about 300,000 households at N$20,000 for each unit. The same analysis is required to determine the investments required by Government to: • Support integrated water management at basin/catchments levels. • Improve water supply and sanitation services • Optimise the benefits from water use, at both local and national levels. • Support water research and water resource development methods.

2.11 CONCLUSION From the above review and assessment of the water sector policies and the policies of other sectors relevant to water sector management, it can be stated that all the policies are in general not inconsistent with the principles of integrated water resources management, but in cases where any inconsistencies are identified as part of the consultative process for the development of the IWRMP and the implementation strategy, policy adjustments can be made where necessary.

25 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

3 NATIONAL WATER LEGISLATION REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT

3.1 INTRODUCTION The existing water legislation in force in Namibia is the Water Act, Act 54 of 1956, but will soon be replaced by an amended version of the Water Resources Management Act, Act 24 of 2004, that was promulgated by Parliament, but has not yet entered into force. The Water Resources Management Act (WRMA) is presently under revision. In terms of Part IX sections 42 and 43 of the December 2008 version of the proposed amended WRMA, the Minister is required to develop an Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (IWRMP) for the country. This plan is essentially focused on ensuring that the objectives of the WRMA as reflected in section 2, namely to ensure that the water resources of Namibia are managed, developed, used, conserved and protected in a manner consistent with, or conducive to the fundamental principles set out in section 3, are achievable from both a functional and operational perspective. Provision is made in the RWMA for the establishment of various institutions that will guide the management of water resources in Namibia, for example the establishment of a Water Advisory Council, a Water Regulatory Committee, Water Area Management Institutions, International Water Management Institutions (to manage transboundary waters) and a Water Tribunal. These institutions will play an important role in giving effect to the IWRMP and all the objectives that will be consolidated in the plan Legal provision has also been made for the implementation of the policy to decentralise certain Government functions to the Regional Authorities and some rural water supply functions are at present being decentralised to the Regions. The IWRMP will accommodate the requirements of people in the regions as guided by the regional authorities However, before proceeding with the development of the IWRMP as required by the WRMA, it is essential to conduct an in-depth analysis, as a part of the situational review, of said and other legislation that may have a bearing on the implementation of the IWRMP.

3.2 BACKGROUND

3.2.1 Namibia Water Resources Management Review During the course of the process leading up to the publication of the various thematic reports of the Namibia Water Resources Management Review (NWRMR), under taken during the period 1996 through to the publication of the final theme reports in 2003, a comprehensive review of the “Legislative and Regulatory Framework” (NWRMR 2003a) was undertaken. Although points of difference, aided and abetted by hindsight, can inevitably be identified, a comprehensive and fair reflection of the situation that prevailed at that time was carried out and that the report in its entirety, allowing for subsequent developments, should be accepted as the background foundation to the current process. In this context it must thus be stated from the outset that the assessment which follows will draw on the aforementioned document via appropriate references for the sake of presenting an update of the situation and/or presenting some counter points of view or perspectives. 26 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

In the preamble to the theme report the authors of the report define the approach adopted in the preparation of the report as "an issue oriented baseline analysis of water legislation in Namibia.” This issue based approach will be retained in the assessment in this chapter. However, each issue will be explored in its entirety by considering not only the situational analysis as it applied at that time, but will also examine the “responses” in terms of legislative or regulatory initiatives in process and the “Options/Recommendations” as proposed by the authors in concluding this chapter of the assessment.

3.2.2 Overview of the Mandatory Framework However, before proceeding with any form of analysis of the present situation, followed by relevant conclusions and recommendations, it is considered appropriate to commence this section with a broad overview of the mandatory framework applicable to the water sector in Namibia. The following sub-section is therefore intended to meet this requirement:

The Legislative Milieu in Namibia In terms of Article 1(6) of the Namibian Constitution its “hierarchical primacy amongst the (various) sources of law (brackets the author's own insert) is established. Thereafter, the respective organs of state, i.e. the executive, the legislature and judiciary are the law-making bodies as defined in terms of the Constitution as shown in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1: Organs of State

• The Executive In terms of Chapters 5 and 6 of the Constitution the executive consists of the President and the Cabinet. Their working relationship is consultative and their 27 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

paramount function is policy-making. They are also responsible, apart from their duties pertaining to the effective functioning of government, to lead the process of negotiation leading to the signing of international treaties, which according to Article 144 of the Constitution forms a part of Namibian law. • The Legislature The Legislature, as outlined in Chapters 7 and 8 of the Constitution, is comprised of the National Assembly and the National Council.

• National Assembly In Namibia "Parliament" refers to the National Assembly acting in terms of the Constitution and subject to review by the National Council. The legislative power of Namibia is vested in the National Assembly subject to assent of the President or the National Council where applicable. As the principal legislative authority in Namibia the National Assembly has the power to make and repeal laws. Laws passed by the National Assembly are referred to as Acts of Parliaments and published in the Government Gazette with reference to their numbers and year of promulgation. Unless the Constitution provides otherwise, a simple majority of votes cast in the National Assembly shall be sufficient for the passage of any bill or resolution of the National Assembly.” • The National Council National Council buttresses the work of the National Assembly. Its functions include amongst others; considering bills passed by the National Assembly, considering subordinate legislation and recommending legislation on matters of regional concern.”

• The Judiciary The administration of justice within Namibia is vested in the Judiciary who perform their responsibilities in this regard as an independent body (from other organs of State). In this context their primary role is to interpret the laws of the country within the spirit and intent of the tenets contained within the Constitution. It could thus be stated that poorly drafted and or prepared legislation that contains ambiguous or inconsistent terminology ultimately complicates the task of the Judiciary. This is especially evident in those instances where specialist, technical matters are under the spotlight. The Judiciary is also split into three distinctive levels of primacy, i.e. the Supreme Court, the High Court and the Lower Courts. Finally it must also be mentioned, in terms of Article 140 of the Constitution that all laws in force at the time of independence remain in force until such time as they are officially repealed and/or amended by new legislation that has passed through the various stages that bring them into body of law. Naturally, in the context of case law, any decisions by the courts taken prior to independence are considered as due precedent. 28 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

General Overview in the Context of Government Policy In terms of the distinctions within the legal framework, as per the foregoing definitions, it is thus clear that policies are in themselves not an integral part of the legal framework. Despite the fact that policies may well be gazetted, the fact remains that they do not constitute a law per se. According to an interpretation of the International Livestock Research Institute the word “policy” is not a tightly defined concept, but a highly flexible one, used in different ways on different occasions. Reference to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary www.meriam- webster.com reiterates this perspective as per the following definitions: 1a: prudence or wisdom in the management of affairs. b: management or procedure based primarily on material interest.

2a: a definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions. b: a high-level overall plan embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures especially of a governmental body. In view of the above it may thus be contended that whilst policies can be used to enrich the governance process in the context of clarifying the execution of operational procedures by the provision of a series of defined actions related to predetermined objectives and specified outcome expectations, they nevertheless do not constitute a part of the legal framework. On the other hand policies may well be supported by special legislation that provides the necessary mechanism for enforcing such policies within the legal process.

3.2.3 Laws and Policies that have a Bearing on the Water Sector Table 3.1 on the next page provides a listing of those laws and policies which may be considered to have an impact, some albeit indirect, on the protection, management, control and usage of water within Namibia. These laws and policies also form the basis for interaction with our neighbours in terms of agreements with them related to the management of shared water resources.

3.2.4 Reference to the Global Water Partnership Experiences In presenting the following reviews of the mandatory framework opinions and observations expressed therein have been largely informed by reference to the experiences of other countries within the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and Southern Africa in particular. In this context it should be stated that the most recent South African Water Act No. 36 of 1998 was considered by the consultants to have a number of shortcomings with regard to governance issues. However, the subsequent IWRM Strategy developed by South Africa is extremely comprehensive and is regarded by the GWP as one of the best examples produced by member countries.

29 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

Table 3.1: Lists of Laws and Policies

Act or Policy Short Description Act No. 54 of 1956 Water Act – concerns the control, use and conservation of water. Act No. 63 of 1970 Mountain Catchment Areas Act – provides for conservation, use, management and control of land situated in mountain catchment areas and to provide for related matters. Act No. 34 of 1971 Water Research Act – establishes a Water Research Commission to promote research into water affairs as well as a Water Research Fund (pre- independence) Amendment AG29/1978 makes Water Research Amendment Act 108 of 1977 applicable to SWA from 1 July 1978. This Act amends Section 11, which deals with the levying of rates and charges. Act No. 4 of 1990 Assignment of Power Act. This Act regulates the powers of the officials responsible for water law administration. Act No. 12 of 1977 Namibia Water Corporation Act – Establishes NamWater and provides for powers, duties and functions to supply water in bulk. Act No. 24 of 2004 Water Resources Management Act – Not in force, but under revision and the latest draft of December 2008 will be considered in this report Policy Document 1993 Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Policy Policy Document 2000 National Water Policy Policy Document 2008 Water Supply and Sanitation Policy Policy Document 2008 Revised Green Scheme Policy Policy Document Namibia’s Environmental Assessment Policy

Related Legislation that has a bearing on the Water Sector

Act No. 22 of 1992 Regional Councils Act Act No. 23 of 1992 Local Authorities Act Act No. 25 of 2000 Traditional Authorities Act. Act No. 33 of 2000 Decentralisation Enabling Act. Environmental Management Act – Promotes the sustainable management of Act No. 7 of 2007 the environment and use of natural resources.

3.3 ISSUE ORIENTED BASELINE ANALYSIS

3.3.1 Ownership of Water and the Rights to Usage/Abstraction

Concept of Riparian Rights Although originally dealt with as two separate issues, it is contended that they are inextricably linked and are thus considered in concert within this sub-section. A comprehensive analysis of the “rights regime” and the historical background within common law which led to the codification of the concept of riparian rights as the cornerstone of the right to the use of public water which is vested in ownership of the land adjacent to waterways or watercourses was undertaken by the authors of the NWRMR report. They go on to reflect on the fact that this principle is entrenched in Act 54 of 1956 because although there is a distinct differentiation in the concept of ownership between public and private water in terms of the various categories (surface water and groundwater) the right to abstraction and usage tends to be dominated by the “owners” of the riparian rights (landowners). 30 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

They thus contend that this principle places a severe constraint on the ideal of equitable access to water and the use thereof primarily as a result of the fact that the applicable landowners, despite being a very small minority of the total population, have access to the greater proportion of available water resources. On the other hand, bearing in mind the fact that the ownership of the water in all watercourses is vested in the State, it is within the rights of the State to control the access to this water. In terms of prevailing water resources management structures they do this by issuing abstraction permits, subject to the payment of an annual tariff, to the most logical and productive users of this water in the most efficient possible way to those landowners situated in the immediate proximity of such watercourses. It could be argued that they are primarily farmers who use this water for the purpose of irrigating some form of produce which contributes to the economy of the country thus fulfilling the principle of optimising the usage of such water. It would thus appear that the authors of the NWRMR report were not clear in their interpretation of the concept of riparian rights because, in the context of the above discussion, riparian rights are not in fact an open licence for the landowners to use water as and when and in a manner decided by themselves to the extent that other have actually been denied access to such water. Riparian rights thus simply mean that the landowners in question would be the most logical recipients of abstraction permits in terms of the efficiency of delivery. In fact the legislation at that time even made provision for the transfer of water between properties e.g. from those at the source to others further away. It is up to the State to introduce management and governance mechanisms that ensure that this privilege is not abused and that the water so abstracted is utilised for the stated purpose and that in doing so the user optimises the productivity of such usage. Such water is thus a commodity owned and managed by the State in the best interests of the country. It must also be said that in issuing abstraction permits care must be taken to ensure that collectively the sum total of all permits issued does not lead to a situation where the available water, after allowances for a reserve, are not oversubscribed and that there is still sufficient flow to allow for the abstraction of water to ensure that the needs of the population as a whole and the environment are catered for. In this way the ideal of equitable access to water can be ensured. Coupled with this is a possible misperception that equitable access means free and unfettered use of the resource. On the contrary, in the true spirit of integrated water resource management, equitable access must be considered in the context of access to usage only for essential needs as defined within the mandatory framework. Finally, it must also be stated that riparian rights are inextricably linked to the adjacent land and are thus only owned by the individual owning the property for as long as s/he continues to hold title to such property or alternatively such person, in exercising their rights over the property, agrees to relinquish their riparian right by terminating the abstraction permit applicable to the property. 31 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

Riparian Rights as a Property Asset Given the above rationale it is thus contended, given the option to introduce relevant restrictive or constraining legislation, that the aspect of riparian rights should be included within any future legislation or regulations. It should also be borne in mind that any form of abstraction permit or licence issued within this context is considered to be an asset that enhances the value of the property to which it applies. The ultimate effect of this is that the overall capital value of property in the country as a whole is enhanced. Finally the fact that current land ownership is possibly concentrated in the hands of a minority grouping should not be reason to discontinue the concept of riparian rights as it must be considered that this imbalance in the ownership of land is not guaranteed to last in perpetuity, especially in view of land reform policies. By removing the riparian rights allocated to any property could mean that future owners who are allocated or purchase this land could be prejudiced by virtue of the loss of this asset that will allow them to abstract water in order to make their operations more productive.

Differentiation between “Public” and “Private” Water • Surface Water The authors of the NWRMR report differentiate between these two concepts in the context of surface water as defined in the Water Act of 1956 and conclude by maintaining that this is “merely a mechanism of allocating water to different categories of users under usufructuary rights.” They, however, go on to add that this does not vest the ownership of surface water in the hands of private individuals, but simply means that preferential abstraction rights accrue to the “landowners on whose land such water is found.” It is unclear as to what the actual objection of this provision is intended to indicate. In the case of natural run-off the question is rather ambiguous in the sense that unless a specific infrastructure, such as a farm dam, designed to capture and store such run-off has been erected, how will it be possible for the landowner to “abstract” such water? Secondly it must also be borne in mind that no such structure to divert the flow of a watercourse may be erected without due authorisation from the State as the owner of such surface water. On the other hand, by implication, it would seem that any run-off water that accumulates in natural depressions or hollows, although practically inaccessible to anyone other than the landowner on whose land such natural topographic phenomena may occur, may not be utilised in any way unless a specific permit to abstract such water has been granted. In other words farm animals or naturally occurring game (deemed to be the property of the landowner whilst on his land) should not be allowed access to such water thus forcing the farmer (or the State as it is their property) to fence off such water. Furthermore, as the land on which such natural storage area may be found belongs to the landowner, the State should be required to pay a rental for the usage of the area occupied by their resource. 32 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

Given the absurdity of such reasoning it is submitted that the authorities refrain from this level of micromanagement for which they will most certainly not have the resources.

• Groundwater The conclusion of a lengthy narrative by the authors of the NWRMR report concludes with the assertion that the “right to usage” does not in effect constitute ownership. The question therefore remains in terms of what determines the right to usage? In supporting their contention that all aspects of water as a resource are owned by the State the authors quote Article 100 of the Constitution which vests ownership of all natural resources in the State. However, the final phrase of this provision in the Constitution, “… if they are not otherwise lawfully owned.” does not preclude ownership by other entities which, by implication, could be a private person. Whilst they acknowledge this anomaly and suggest that it should be further investigated as it is “prima facie at odds with it (the concept of private ownership as implied in the Constitution),” they appear to (conveniently?) ignore this situation when making recommendations with regard to the aspect of ownership under section 11 of the report. It is contended that this is a fundamental error and cannot simply be remedied by ignoring the provision for private ownership as contained within the Constitution.

The reality is that the concept of ownership of water and the associated rights to the usage thereof, is not as clear-cut as they would have us believe and there is thus a need for legal experts well versed in the interpretation of the Constitution and related mandatory framework to explore this aspect in more depth. This will need to be done as a matter of some urgency, but most definitely before finalising the drafting of a new WRMA because it has implications for the way in which governance principles are applied in the future.

3.4 WATER QUALITY AND POLLUTION CONTROL Having considered the various analyses, conclusions and recommendations contained in the NWRMR report we find ourselves in support of their contentions that with the number of different initiatives under consideration by the Ministries there is a real danger of fragmenting the control and thereby diluting the ultimate efficacy of pollution control and monitoring. The mandatory framework, by virtue of the related legislation, policies and regulations either already in place (policies) or in the process of being drafted (legislation and regulations) should clearly set the responsibility for the overall aspect of the pollution control with regard to water resources within the DWAF in the MAWF. This aspect should be taken into account if and when the organisational design and development exercise in line with the IWRM approach to the management of the water resources of Namibia is undertaken. 33 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

However, given the fact that the aspect of pollution is a cross cutting issue that impacts on other resources it will be essential to consider the provisions of other legislation and/or policies and regulations that may impact on the mandatory framework regulating the water resources of the country. Of particular concern in this regard are the following: • Public health • Environment and tourism • Mining • Agriculture Although it is probable that the revised WRMA may not be completed prior to the implementation of the IWRM strategy, it is recommended that the final drafting of the act should be informed by the existing policy documents and other prevailing legislation and regulations which may fall under the jurisdiction of other Ministries. Furthermore, to be in line with recommended best practice advocated by the GWP, the implementation of policies and regulations should not be postponed until after the legislation has been formally promulgated.

3.5 GROUND WATER ABSTRACTION The authors of the NWRMR report deal with this aspect rather briefly, but nevertheless reasonably comprehensively. Although the present consultants are in agreement with the recommendations, the issue of ownership of the resource, as raised in 3.3.1 above, must be resolved as per the recommendation with regard to juristic opinion in this regard.

3.6 SPECIFIC USES OF WATER Dealt with as a separate consideration by the authors of the IWRMR report, it is contended that the specific uses of water must be considered as an integral part of the considerations related to abstraction rights and the regulation of the allocations provided for in terms of such abstraction permits/licences. However, irrespective of the detail related to the management of the system governing abstraction procedures, it will be essential that the overarching principle of IWRM informs all planning and implementation initiatives in this regard.

3.7 POTENTIAL IMPACT OF OTHER LEGISLATION ON THE WATER SECTOR AND THE PREPARATION OF AN IWRMP. Apart from the lack of appropriate cross-referencing within the proposed Act reviewed during the lead up to this report, it is also of concern that all legislation consulted during the course of the background research to this report, was similarly deficient in this regard. The following is thus a brief overview of some possible aspects of other legislation which may have an influence on the design, implementation, management and monitoring of an IWRMP:

3.7.1 Act No. 54 of 1956 Water Act Although the Water Act was promulgated by the South African Government for South Africa (DWA 1956), certain sections of the Water Act relevant to Namibia were made applicable in 34 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

the country because the then South West Africa was under South African administration at that time. The main purpose of the Water Act is to provide for the sustainable development and use of the water resources in the country and in terms of Section 3(1) of the Assignment of Power Act, 1990 (Act 4 of 1990), the powers, duties and functions in terms of the provisions of the Water Act, and the regulations made thereunder, have been assigned to the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry and certain officials in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. The Water Act is administrated on behalf of Government by the Division of Law Administration (DLA) in the Directorate of Resource Management (DRM) in the DWAF in the MAWF. The Act gives the Minister responsible for water affairs, the power to take all the steps considered necessary for the investigation, development, control and utilization of water resources, as well as giving effect to the provisions of the Act. The Water Act is extremely difficult to read and makes use of very convoluted and at times rather archaic language. Although it would appear that this act makes no provision for the ideal of decentralisation as all powers are vested in the centralised power of the Minister as per Chapter 1 Section 2, provisions (a) through (m). What is of particular note within this listing of powers of the Minister is that there is no reference to any form of sustainable use planning or reserve protection. In this regard it is very pedestrian and focuses primarily on controlled utilisation of what is apparently available. However, when one considers the proposed WRMA, apart from the fact that there is considerably more emphasis on sustainability concerns and related planning requirements, control nevertheless remain vested in the central authority because despite the provisions of the Decentralisation Enabling Act, in conjunction with the provisions of Chapter 12 of the Constitution which effectively brings the Regional and Local government structures into being, there is essentially little to no recognition of the delegation of powers let alone any form of devolution. Time and resources precluded the opportunity to analyse this lengthy Act in finite detail. However, a cursory read through confirmed, despite the turgid nature of the text, that it is extremely comprehensive and logical, making use of consistent, unambiguous language and terminology throughout. When one considers the exhaustive list of amendments over the years it is as it should be in terms of covering most of the possible interpretative approaches that might have been adopted over the course of the past 53 years.

3.7.2 Mountain Catchment Areas Act No. 63 of 1970 It was not able to establish at this time whether any areas were ever proclaimed as so-called "mountain catchment areas" within Namibia. It will obviously need to be established if this is the case as these areas would need to be re-proclaimed in terms of the provisions related the Basin Management Institutions in terms of incorporation into the areas that fall under the jurisdiction of such Basin Management Institutions. 35 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

3.7.3 Water Research Act No. 34 of 1971 This legislation was promulgated purely as a means of establishing and legitimising the Water Research Commission and the Water Research Fund. As a result no provisions within this legislation were found to be of any influence or value in the context of drafting a WRMA. However, the concept of a water research fund may well be worth considering for inclusion in the revised new legislation.

3.7.4 Regional Councils Act, 1992 (Act No 22 of 1992) The powers and function of Regional Councils are prescribed in the Act and the responsibility of the RC's with respect to settlements are summarised in section 32 of the Act which states that the functions for water and sanitation, as stated in the Local Authorities Act, are applicable in settlement areas. As far as the management and control of settlement areas is concerned, the provisions of section 30, except for some paragraphs of subsection (1), sections 33 to 62, 66 to 76, 78, 79, 90, 91 and 94 of the Local Authorities Act, shall apply mutatis mutandis in respect of the management and control of a settlement area by a regional council as if such regional council were a village council as defined in section 1 of the said Act or if such settlement area were the area of such village council.

Local Authorities Act, 1992 (Act No. 23 of 1992) The responsibilities of the Local Authorities are governed by the Local Authorities Act and one of the responsibilities of LA's is to supply water to the residents in its area for household, business or industrial purposes, as well as to maintain sewer and other sanitation systems. The Local Authorities are able to make their own regulations with respect to the above services. Where no such regulations exist, they must adopt the Model Regulations issued by the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development (MRLGHRD). In section 30 of the Local Authorities Act the responsibility of local authorities for the provision of water and sanitation are clearly defined and includes the power to supply water to the residents in its area for household, business or industrial purposes and to provide, maintain and operate a system of sewerage and drainage works for the benefit of the residents the area under its jurisdiction.

3.7.5 Namibia Water Corporation Act, 1997 (Act No. 12 of 1997) Section 2(1) of the Namibia Water Corporation Act established a company to be known as the Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) The objectives of NamWater are to carry out efficiently, the primary business of bulk water supply to customers, in sufficient quantities, of a quality suitable for the customers’ purposes, and by cost-effective, environmentally sound and sustainable means; and the secondary business of rendering water-related services, supplying facilities and granting (lease) rights to customers upon their request. The Act provides for the responsibilities of NamWater as well as to regulate its powers, duties and functions; to provide for a more efficient use and control of water resources; and to provide for incidental matters. 36 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

NamWater was established as a commercial entity and has the duty to supply water and inter alia, must consider each application for bulk water supply by any potential customer, and subject to the availability of the required quantity and quality of water, must accept the applicant as a customer. In Part VIII, section 40, the provision of water to customers is deemed an essential service, but NamWater has the right to interrupt or reduce water supply whenever a condition of drought causes an insufficient source yield; or when there is a breakdown of any water work; or if there is an emergency likely to endanger life or property. Sections 5 and 6 of this Act set out the Objects and Functions of the Corporation respectively. Section 5 requires the Corporation to act “in the best interests of the Republic of Namibia”. This is not defined further and it is perhaps worth noting that such a statement could be interpreted widely. It is perhaps reasonable to conclude that it is in the best interests of the country that NamWater provides appropriate water services with an affordable cost recovery regime instead of running the risk of bankruptcy and becoming dependant on Government bail-outs as is the case with other parastatals who are supposed to operate on business principles Section 6(2) of this Act requires that NamWater shall give effect to the relevant policies of the Government relating to water supply as communicated to the Corporation from time to time by the Minister. Interpretation of this clause could be as follows: • NamWater could be seen to be a means for the Government to implement its water supply policies, but when such policies deal with subsidisation, this should not contradict the commercial nature of the Corporation. • A further interpretation can also be that it is the sole responsibility of the Minister to instruct NamWater to implement Government’s policies. Section 6(3) of this Act allows that the Minister may negotiate and conclude, on behalf of the State as the sole shareholder in the Corporation, the expectations of the Government in respect of the scope of business of the Corporation, its efficiency and financial performance, as well as the financial targets which the Corporation is expected to achieve over periods of at least five years at a time. This may be interpreted that the Minister may negotiate and agree with the Corporation on their expected profitability or financial performance and should NamWater be required to implement policies to supply subsidised water under Section 6(2), it would be reasonable to assume that such requirements and implications will be factored into the financial performance required of the Corporation, to be negotiated between the Minister and the Corporation. It should be noted, that even after NamWater has been in existence for more than 10 years, the agreement between NamWater and the Government, regarding NamWater’s scope of business and financial performance, has still not been concluded. Such an agreement between the Government and NamWater should serve to provide a framework within which the general performance can be evaluated as well as guidelines according to which the income of the Company (water tariffs) can be determined. Powers of the Corporation 37 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

Section 7 of the Act deals with the powers of the Corporation. The Act specifies that the Corporation has the power, but not necessarily the duty (according to an opinion from the Attorney General) to impose water on a full cost recovery basis. However, if the Corporation must operate as a commercial enterprise the primary purpose supply water in bulk, then it would be reasonable to assume that must levy tariffs for water supplied to cover the costs associated with its business activities as its primary form of income. The fact that tariff setting should be done in consultation with the Minister is slightly ambiguous, and does not provide any practical guidelines. As a result, this clause has led to much misunderstanding between NamWater and the Ministry. Until such time as the independent Water Regulator, as contemplated in the WRMA, comes into effect, NamWater and the Ministry (the Minister) should agree on the process to be followed to approve and publishing NamWater tariffs, as well as to negotiate a business performance contract between the two parties. Section 15 of this Act deals with subsidies for the supply of water by the Corporation. The Minister may enter into a written agreement with the Corporation for the supply of water services or facilities at a cost subsidised or fully paid for by the Minister with funds appropriated by Parliament for such purposes. In the case of cross-subsidisation, which is when consumers from one water scheme are charged more than the cost of supply in order to subsidise consumers of another scheme where the consumers are charged less than the cost of supply, it can be said, according this Section of this Act, that such an arrangement requires the written approval of the Minister. It can also be reasonably assumed that, should the Minister instruct the Corporation to implement a Government policy of subsidisation under Section 6(2), and consequently agree on the financial implications to the Corporation under Section 6(3), he will approve and provide the funds for whatever subsidy is required, under Sections 15(1) and (2). Section 30(1) deals with the financial provisions of the Corporation and entitles the Corporation to capitalise such portion of its profits as the Board may deem necessary for the financing of future capital works, and any amounts so capitalised and not immediately required to be expended shall be deposited in a reserve account. The reference to profits and the provision of operating a reserve fund is consistent with the operation of a commercial entity. However, profits are not defined in the NamWater Act and due to an anomaly in the tax legislation NamWater is liable for tax, even if they do not make a profit, or receiving income in excess of expenditure. According to Section 30(2), the Corporation may establish and operate such reserve funds as the Board may deem necessary and the management of these reserve funds is therefore left to the discretion of the Board, which implies that the Corporation may indeed make profits as befitting a commercial entity. As a rule of thumb, commercial entities capitalise 30 to -50% of their profit for investment purposes (future upgrades or expansion) and pay out the remainder of the profit as dividends. A similar arrangement could possibly be negotiated between the Corporation and the Minister under Section 6(3). Sections 32 and 33 of the NamWater Act provides for accounts, auditing and annual reporting that are consistent with the operation of a commercial entity. 38 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National Water Legislation Review and Assessment

Part VIII section 42. (3) subsection (2) does not exempt NamWater from complying with any provision of the Water Act, 1956 (Act No 54 0f 1956) or any other law which requires a permit or authority to be obtained in order to impound or utilise water from water resources.

3.7.6 Water Supply and Sanitation Policy Obviously drafted after the promulgation of the WRMA and the proposed amendment of the Act, this document was found to be far more realistic in terms of a sound governance approach, particularly in the context of rural water supply and sanitation. This document is considered to be a strong guiding framework that should be conclusively consulted before finalising either the IWRMP strategy or adjustments to the legal framework.

3.8 HOW PRACTICAL IS THE WRMA IN TERMS OF MANDATED GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES AND CAPACITY FOR IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT The promulgated Water Resources Management Act, (Act No 24 of 2004), and the proposed amendment of the Act, is of particular concern in this regard with the main issues being in the arena of the various regulatory structures. In this context it was found that each of the boards, committees, etc., must report directly to the Minister, which seems to be very impractical in view of the many duties of the Minister. Furthermore, each of these groups is proposed as a body corporate (in this instance it is not clear whether they will fall within the existing state structures as body corporates, e.g. Local Authorities, or alternatively as completely new parastatal entities). The other question is whether Namibia, a country of some two million people, can we even begin to consider the necessity for a governance structure that is much more complex than that of many countries with higher populations. This also raises the issue of cost in terms of the existing budgetary constraints, given the fact that the activities of the existing DWAF are already underfunded while staff resources that are overstretched.

3.9 RECOMMENDATIONS - VITAL ASPECTS TO BE ADDRESSED BY THE IWRMP In view of the various aspects identified in the previous section, coupled with the shortcomings identified in the context of the proposed legislation it is strongly urged that a pragmatic approach that is sensitive to the realities on the ground be adopted. Furthermore, the significant lack of human, physical and social capital resources must be considered in terms of what one can realistically hope to achieve in terms of a strategy that can be realistically implemented within the context of these constraints. Finally, the whole exercise can quite easily turn into an act of complete futility unless there is the necessary attention to detail in terms of ensuring that it is constructed in such a way that it is possible to cascade it down to the decentralised or lower level structures within a framework that makes provision for the formation of oversight bodies which oversee and monitor the executive implementation process. The executive implementation process must be undertaken by appropriately qualified and skilled officials employed with an appropriate organisational structure within the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry.

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4 NATIONAL AND REGIONAL WATER INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT

4.1 INTRODUCTION Managing the water sector in Namibia has a long and rich history, both pre- and post independence. Operating in a “water sector silo”, management of the sector has been fairly successful in the past. However, with the introduction of integrated water resources management (IWRM), the institutional requirements would be significantly different from that of managing the resource purely from a water perspective alone. Institutional arrangements and development will be critical to the formulation and implementation of IWRM policies and programs. A number of factors determine what is appropriate in a given context; stage of development, financial and human resources, traditional norms and other specific circumstances all play a role. This chapter will investigate international experiences and recommended approaches in this regard as well as the Namibian situation. Based on this, recommendations will then be formulated that will aim at creating an IWRM - friendly institutional landscape.

4.2 INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE For the purpose of this chapter, the investigation into international experiences and the learning outcomes derived from it will heavily draw on the work done and reported on by the members of the Global Water Partnership (GWP). One of the most important learning outcomes from the work done by GWP is that flawed demarcation of responsibilities between actors, inadequate co-ordinating mechanisms, jurisdictional gaps or overlaps, and the failure to match responsibilities with authority and capacities for action are all major sources of difficulty with implementing an IWRM approach. Agencies involved in water resources management have to be considered in their various geographic settings, taking into account the political structure of the country, the unity of the resource in a basin or aquifer and the existence and capacities of community organizations. Institutional development will not simply be about creating formally constituted organizations, but it will also involve considering a whole range of formal rules and regulations, customs and practices, ideas and information, and interest or community group networks, which together provide the institutional framework within which water management actors and other decision-makers are or will be operating. Fragmented and shared responsibilities are a reality and are always likely to exist. Experience showed that the merging of agencies or responsibilities has frequently resulted in very little significant performance improvements; conversely, there are several examples where effective co-ordination mechanisms have allowed problems to be handled well despite the need to involve several agencies. The simple act of putting all water functions within one agency will not necessarily remove conflicts of interest, and can result in the loss of transparency. 40 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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Key to all of this was therefore the creation of effective co-ordination mechanisms between different agencies. Integration in the sense of bringing all functions under one roof does not automatically lead to co-operation and co-ordination or more effective water resources management. International experience showed that roles and responsibilities for effective resource management and coordination should be separated into different levels. These levels would be national, regional, basin wide, and local.

4.3 NATIONAL LEVEL There is a wide array of institutions outside the water and sanitation sector that are responsible for planning and developing projects and activities of which the impacts on water resources can be enormous i.e. agriculture, industry, trade, and energy. Similarly water resources management institutions need to consider issues, such as environment or tourism, that lie within the domain of other authorities. It is essential to have mechanisms for dialogue and co-ordination to ensure some measure of integration in order to prevent specific issues being overlooked due to lack of expertise or interest, or a sectoral approach where different policies are followed without any consideration for needs of or impacts on other sectors. A common approach internationally has been to create new institutions or significantly change the mandate of existing ones as part of IWRM reform. In many cases it was found that the establishment of an “Apex” body at the national level was desirable for the accomplishment of IWRM. Such a body would at least be responsible for the formulation of policies and strategies as well as the coordination of national planning related to water resources. A national body should ideally also be responsible for the collection and dissemination of water-related information as well as regulating and overseeing the performance of lower-tier organisations. The creation of apex bodies should encourage a “big picture” approach to water decision-making and such bodies can free water management decisions from being driven by sectoral interests to become more strategic in nature. International experiences however highlighted the following: • There are very little successful experiences to date in the establishment of robust and respected apex bodies; • The establishment of successful apex bodies can be a slow process, since it takes time for a new body to achieve legitimacy; • The effectiveness of an apex body is linked to the specific political and historical context; and 41 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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• For an apex body to function effectively, all the stakeholders who are involved in the functions under its jurisdiction need to develop commitment to it and ensure it has appropriate powers. Flowing from international experience in the context of creating a national setup to steer and govern integrated water resources management are two specific areas that will need to receive special attention. They are the:

• Creation of an organisational framework – forms and functions. This will involve a total reformation of the institutional and organisational landscape in order to achieve improved water governance. The relevant landscape would include from institutions dealing with transboundary issues, regulatory bodies, basin management institutions, down to local authorities, ending up at the level of civil society organisations. Experience showed that in very few instances did existing bodies or organisational concepts serve the requirements of integrated water resources management.

• Institutional capacity building – developing human resources. Key to the successful implementation of integrated water resources management would be upgrading the skills and understanding of decision-makers, managers and professionals in all stakeholder sectors. This would require undertaking capacity-building for regulatory bodies and service providers as well as to empowerment of civil society groups. The traditional top-down approach followed up to this point will have to be supported by a bottom-up approach if IWRM is to become demand driven and has to deliver welfare gains to a wide range of end users. To achieve this, existing organisations will have to be strengthened to enable them to effectively participate in the IWRM process. According to the Water Supply and Sanitation Policy (WSASP) that was adopted in July 2008, there is already an institutional setup in existence that serves Namibia in terms of the supply of water and sanitation services. The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) currently plays a crucial role in managing and overseeing the activities within the water sector in order to ensure that this resource is thoroughly investigated and allocated to all users sustainable basis to ensure that value addition is optimised and environmental needs are met. In the WSASP it is also recommended that the function for rural sanitation be transferred from the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS) to the MAWF that would ensure that all aspects of water and sanitation management are under one umbrella. The proposal is that the Directorate of Rural Water Supply be transformed into a ‘Directorate of Water Supply and Sanitation Coordination’ in the MAWF and made responsible for the overall coordination of water supply and sanitation (WSS) services in the country.

4.4 DECENTRALISATION The WSASP makes very bold recommendations with regards to the administrative framework and principles according to which it should be implemented. According to the 42 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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Policy “... community members, through their own local committees or through representative councils, are expected to play an increasingly important role in the sector in future.”(MAWF 2008a) In addition to this statement, two of the six basic principles for the establishment, operation, maintenance and replacement of WSS schemes will be the maximum involvement of the users and the delegation of responsibilities to the lowest appropriate level. The WSASP goes even further by stating that the “... complexity of the WSS sector calls for good communication, positive attitudes towards cooperation and willingness to be flexible amongst the various actors.” This complex nature of the sector therefore implies a strong need for decentralisation, in order for the administration to deal with the service needs or requirements at a level where they are manageable and transparent. Decentralisation has therefore a particular relevance to services in rural and urban areas. The Policy however remotely acknowledges that the process of decentralisation has not been without its problems and that it should be done in a sustainable fashion. This would require that sufficient capacity and resources are available as envisaged in the Decentralisation Policy of 1999 and the Decentralisation Enabling Act, 2000 (Act 33 of 2000). Decentralisation in Namibia is a Constitutional requirement as per the provision of Chapter 12 of the Namibian Constitution. This stems from a desire to correct policies of the past where Namibians were excluded from democratic and decision making processes. In the words of Hon. Dr. Nicky Iyambo, then Minister of the Ministry of Regional, Local Government and Housing, in his address to Parliament on the presenting the Decentralisation Policy: “... the only guarantor for democracy is people making their own political, cultural, social and developmental decisions at their own level and the only safeguard for sustainable development is when people participate in setting their own priorities, planning, implementing, monitoring them and evaluating these themselves within the national interest.” What is very important to recognize in this statement is that the decisions of society should be supported by participation and must be in the national interest. Within a unitary state, there are three different approaches that can be followed in order to achieve decentralisation. These are deconcentration, delegation, and devolution. Deconcentration is where central government decentralises its own staff to sub-national level to carry out their tasks and functions closer to the people they serve or having to interface with for whatever reason. Although this approach allows constituents greater interface with government it still excludes them from active participation in decision making. The second approach of delegation involves the allocation of certain functions to sub-national levels but does not include allocating the responsibilities as the accountability remains with the higher central authority. This delegation of functions can easily be retracted. Devolution on the other hand requires central government, through the legislative process, to allocate full responsibility and public accountability to sub-national level. In terms of water and sanitation sector functions, the decentralisation of rural water supply activities has been identified as one of the high-priority areas to be decentralised. There is however a toning down in the urgency to force the issue of decentralisation within the water 43 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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sector in the latest Policy (MAWF 2008a) when compared to a statement that the “...decentralisation objective should take precedence over the performance objective” from the previous Policy (DWA 1993). Decentralisation of activities and functions to be performed within the water and sanitation sector will be difficult and complex to achieve. Most of the activities related to direct customer service delivery have already been fully decentralised in terms of being assigned responsibilities of Local Authorities (LA's) and Regional Council (RC's) as per the Local Authorities Act and Regional Councils Act. Although the level of success of performing these services by LA's vary quite considerably, they are fully responsible for them. The next targeted function is that of rural water supply. This function could be decentralised to the RC's, but there is considerable concern about Councils’ capacity and ability to assume this task within the foreseeable future. The process has however already started through the MAWF having adopted a deconcentration approach by establishing regional offices and building capacity within these offices. The remainder of functions as envisioned by the WRMA would be difficult to decentralise following the political regions as guide for the simple reason that existing identified water management areas do not follow the same demarcation as the political regions. In most cases water management areas run across multiple regions or a single region cuts across a number of water management areas. Decentralisation strategies for these functions should be considered very carefully and whatever approach is to be followed would need to ensure resource optimisation. There is already an acute shortage of competent staff and development funding. The water supply and sanitation sector cannot afford a decentralised institutional arrangement that would consume scarce human and financial resources for maintaining unproductive bureaucratic structures as opposed to investing the available resources in addressing the backlog in offering Namibians increased quality access to water and sanitation services.

4.5 INSTITUTIONAL LANDSCAPE Following is an analysis of international, national and decentralised institutions currently involved in providing, managing, and regulation water resources in Namibia.

4.5.1 International Water Management Institutions The purpose of the international water management institutions or Water Commissions is to jointly manage the international river basins shared between Namibia and the other riparian basin States. Although the WRMA formally provides for the establishment of International Water Management Institutions, a number of Water Commissions have already been established under the existing Water Act. The international agreements that led to the establishment of these institutions have all been ratified by Parliament and Namibia is party to a Water Commission on all the internationally shared watercourse systems in which Namibia is a basin State, except the Cuvelai basin. A Water Commission for the Cuvelai Basin will have to be established under the legislation in place at that time. The activities of the Water Commissions are under the control of the DWAF in the MAWF on behalf of the 44 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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Government. One of the functions of those institutions, within Namibia, is to ensure that the Government and Namibian water and sanitation services providers comply with international agreements and protocols regarding the abstraction of water from, or the disposal of waste water into shared water resources, including the implementation of joint water development or management projects in the respective river basins. The purpose and responsibilities of the existing Water Commissions will be briefly discussed

The Permanent Joint Technical Commission The Permanent Joint Technical Commission (PJTC) was established on 21 January 1969 to implement the proposed Kunene River Scheme on behalf of the Governments of Angola and Namibia, but became defunct during the civil war in Angola and the war of independence in Namibia. After the independence of Namibia in 1990, the PJTC was re-instituted on 18 September 1990 under the auspices of the Joint Commission of Cooperation that was established between Angola and Namibia on the same date. The purpose of the PJTC is to act in an advisory capacity to the two Governments regarding the development of the Kunene River, to study and to report on matters relating to the three Water Use Agreements on the Cunene, as well as any modification thereof which may subsequently be agreed to between the parties. The Commission is actively involved in studies for the development of a proposed hydropower scheme at the Baynes site on the lower Kunene and a Water Master Plan on the Kunune, as well as to oversee the management of the Cuvelai Basin that is adjacent to the Kunene Basin. The Commission must advise the Governments about the agreed course of action. After the Governments have agreed to proceed according to the given advice, the Commission will be advised accordingly to execute the work to be done on behalf of the respective Governments. The Commission is therefore not only an advisor as generally perceived, but also an executing agent on behalf of the basin States.

The Joint Permanent Technical Commission The Joint Permanent Technical Commission (JPTC) was established in 13 November 1991 between the Governments of Botswana and Namibia to advise the Governments on water matters of mutual interest and the initial work of the JPTC concentrated on the Okavango River, transboundary groundwater aquifers and the Kwando-Linyanti-Chobe River System that is a tributary of the Zambezi River. The activities of the JPTC on the Okavango and the Zambezi were to a large extent taken over by other water commissions established to manage those river systems.

The Permanent Water Commission The Permanent Water Commission (PWC) was established on 14 September 1992. The main purpose of the PWC is to act as technical advisor to the Parties on matters relating to the conservation, development and utilization of water resources of common interest, but 45 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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mainly focus on the lower Orange River flowing along the common border between the two countries. The PWC also performs such other functions pertaining to the development and utilization of such resources as the countries may from time to time agree to assign to the Commission. This means that the Commission must first investigate a water matter of mutual interest to arrive at an informed, mutually beneficial and acceptable conclusion. The Commission must then advise the Governments about the agreed course of action. After the Governments have agreed to proceed according to the given advice, the Commission will be advised accordingly to execute the work to be done on behalf of the respective Governments. The Commission is therefore not only an advisor as generally perceived by many, but also an executing agent on behalf of the basin States.

The Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission The Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) was established on 15 September 1994. The main purpose of the OKACOM is to act as technical advisor to the Parties on matters relating to the conservation, development and utilization of water resources of common interest. The OKACOM also performs such other functions pertaining to the development and utilization of such resources as the countries may from time to time agree to assign to the Commission. This means that the Commission must first investigate a water matter of mutual interest to arrive at an informed, mutually beneficial and acceptable conclusion. The Commission must then advise the Governments about the agreed course of action. After the Governments have agreed to proceed according to the given advice, the Commission will be advised accordingly to execute the work to be done on behalf of the respective Governments. The Commission is therefore not only an advisor as generally perceived, but also an executing agent on behalf of the basin States.

Figure 4.1: Organisation of the OKACOM 46 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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The Orange-Senqu River Commission The Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) was established on 3 November 2000 as a multilateral water commission on the Orange River. The States Party to the ORASECOM Agreement are Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. There are actually three water commissions operating in the Orange-Senqu River basin, namely the bilateral Permanent Water Commission (PWC) between Namibia and South Africa, the bilateral Lesotho Highlands Water Commission (LHWC) between Lesotho and South Africa and the multilateral ORASECOM. See Figure 4.2. The bilateral commissions report to the multilateral commission about their activities in order to keep all basin states informed.

Figure 4.2: Water Commissions on the Orange River

The main purpose of the ORASECOM is to act as technical advisor to the Parties on matters relating to the development, utilization and conservation of water resources in the River System and shall perform such other functions pertaining to the development and utilization of the water resources as the Parties may agree to assign to the Commission. This means that the Commission must first investigate a water matter of mutual interest to arrive at an informed, mutually beneficial and acceptable conclusion. The Commission must then advise the Governments about the agreed course of action. After the Governments have agreed to proceed according to the given advice, the Commission will be advised accordingly to execute the work to be done on behalf of the respective Governments. The Commission is 47 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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therefore not only an advisor as generally perceived by many, but also an executing agent on behalf of the basin States.

The Zambezi River Commission The Zambezi River Commission (ZAMCOM) was established on 13 July 2004 as a multilateral water commission on the Zambezi River. There are eight basin States on the Zambezi and all of them are Party to the Agreement, except Zambia. The other States are Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. In view of the fact that Zambia is not a Party to the Agreement the Commission failed to meet since 2004

4.5.2 National Institutions

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry The water related functions that are at present performed by the Minister in terms of the existing Water Act (Act 54 of 1956) are basically similar to those mentioned above and relate to the control, conservation and use of water for domestic agricultural, urban, and industrial purposes. It is clear that the Minister cannot perform these functions without the Public Service and therefore the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) has the responsibility to carry out these functions on behalf and in consultation with the Minister. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) in the Ministry is responsible for the administration of water affairs through the Under Secretary for Water Affairs and Forestry (or Head of the DWAF) and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry. The said existing Water Act makes provision in section 3 for the establishment of the Department of Water Affairs, but the WRMA does not make any reference to the existence of the existing structures performing the water related functions of the Minister. The WRMA neither makes provision for the existence of the DWAF, nor confirms the abolishment of the DWAF as decided by Cabinet (Cabinet Decision 26th/22.08.00/006). This may mean that if the WRMA comes into force without making reference to the existing Department, and repeals all previous water laws mentioned in the Schedule, as provided for in section 137 of the WRMA (which includes Act 54 of 1956), then the legality of maintaining the DWAF in the Public Service may be in question. The WRMA should therefore be amended to make provision for either transitional arrangements or the maintenance of the DWAF until such time as the WRA is established.

NamWater The main purpose of the Namibia Water Corporation Limited (NamWater), established by the Namibia Water Corporation Act, Act 12 of 1997, is to act as a national supplier of water in bulk to customers in an environmentally sound, sustainable and cost-effective way, while ensuring that sufficient quantities of water of a quality suitable to the needs of customers is available. Section 6 of the NamWater Act outlines the main functions of the Corporation as to: 48 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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• Explore, develop, and manage water resources for the purpose of bulk water supply and to acquire, construct or extend infrastructure and operate and maintain it in order to supply water to users; • Investigate, research and study matters related to water resources; • Render services and provide infrastructure against payment; and • Provide training and build capacity. Interesting to note is Section 6(c) that states that the business of NamWater will not be confined to be within the geographical borders of Namibia, but could include providing water to customers outside the borders of Namibia.

Decentralised Institutions As alluded to in section 5.4 on decentralisation, this ideal is becoming increasingly important and pressure, both from the top as well as from the constituents, are increasing to get the process rolling. Based on international experiences, the need for decentralisation has also been identified as a critical requirement for involving end-users in the process of strategising on, planning and implementation of IWRMPs. The various bodies and institutions that are already in existence in Namibia are analysed and their respective capacities commented on below.

Water Area Management Institutions The first decentralized institutional setup of interest as provided for in the current Water Act as well as the new WRMA is Water Area Management Institutions (WAMI) or Water Basin Management Institutions. The objective of these institutions should be to ensure the protection, sustainable use, development, conservation, management and control of water resources and resource quality within a clearly demarcated area of common concern. A number of these basin management institutions have already been established under the existing Water Act. The purpose and responsibilities of these institutions will be briefly discussed. The Karst Water Management Body The Karst Water Management Body (KWMB) was established in June 2003 in consultation with the Department of Water Affairs by all the stakeholders that obtain water for domestic use, mining and irrigation from aquifers in a karstified hydro-geological environment located in the Otavi Mountainland (OML) in Namibia. The origin of the KWMB lies in the establishment of the Karst Water Committee when the Grootfontein - Omatako canal component of the Eastern National Water Carrier was under construction with the objective to abstract groundwater from the Karst Area for supply to central Namibia. The KWMB is a unique institution because it deals with the management of a groundwater resource that lies in the headwaters of a number of internationally shared river basins and a national river basin, namely the Cuvelai, Okavango and the Ugab respectively. The area has 49 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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been declared a groundwater control area by the Government in terms of the Water Act (Act No 54 of 1956) and provides a framework for the efficient and sustainable management of the groundwater resources. The KWMB represents all stakeholders in the OML, including the regional the local government institutions, the farming community and the mining sector. The KWMB is formally recognised by the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry as an advisory body on water related matters in the Tsumeb – Otavi - Grootfontein water control area. One of its main functions is to optimise the management, and to achieve the most beneficial and sustainable use of the water resources in the Karst Area. The Government will not issue or renew any water abstraction permit without prior consultation with the KWMB and the endorsement of all decisions. The KWMB meets at least two times per year and the Executive Committee meets when necessary to deal with matters that require immediate attention. The Kuiseb Basin Management Committee The Kuiseb Basin Management Committee (KBMC) was established on 29 October 2003 at Gobabeb by the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry. It grew out of a Forum of major stakeholder groups in the Kuiseb Basin after intervention by means of a project called “Environmental Learning and Action in the Kuiseb” (). A start-up workshop held at Gobabeb on 5 December 2001 was attended by 13 participants representing 5 stakeholder organizations, namely the Walvis Bay Municipality, the Swakopmund Municipality, the Rössing Uranium mine, Namwater and the Topnaar community. The participants formulated a vision which stated ‘’A healthy Kuiseb River basin’’. The KBMC was launched two years and several follow-up workshops later. Since its establishment the KBMC has finalised a constitution and a revised strategic plan for the Basin. It also finalised a financing policy and opened a bank account. Meetings are held on a quarterly basis. The MAWF, through the DWAF, is part of the KBMC and will as such assist the KBMC with technical support and the soliciting of funds. The Department will also be instrumental in directing the component of the assignment that addresses generic aspects of integrated water resource planning at the basin level and setting an example for the establishment of similar Basin Management Institutions. The KBMC completed an IWRMP for the Kuiseb Basin at the end of 2008 and is the first BMC in Namibia to have achieved that objective. The Basin Management Plan provides for the integrated management of water, land and natural resources in the basin, as well as a roadmap for the committee to discharge all its duties. It IWRMP addresses not only the natural systems, but also related socio-economic and institutional aspects. It therefore provides for a multi-disciplinary approach to the planning and implementation of river basin development. The Iishana Basin Management Committee The Iishana Basin management Committee (IBMC) was officially inaugurated on 31 October 2005 and has 19 members representing 12 stakeholder institutions. The Iishana sub-basin 50 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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covers 28 constituencies from all four north central regions. The IBMC has a constitution, a financial policy have been approved and a bank account opened. A demarcation map of the basin has also been produced. IBMC has engaged in various awareness raising activities, using posters and brochures, radio talks and contributions to newspapers. Members of the IBMC have identified a number of constraints and challenges. Some important stakeholders such as the Oshana Regional Council, the Uukwambi Traditional Authority and Ondonga Traditional Authority were reluctant to participate in the IBMC. Participation in IBMC meetings was made difficult by long distances and lack of transport to and from remote areas. The IBMC only had one vehicle. In addition, members of the IBMC did not always report back to their constituencies about developments in the sub-basin. For the immediate future the IBMC will continue with their awareness raising campaigns amongst all stakeholders. In a related activity, all relevant information will be made available to constituency offices in the Sub-Basin. The IBMC also wants to share experiences with the KBMC and to empower its members in technical areas. Clear plans setting out the next steps are under preparation.

Regional Councils The role that Regional Councils (RC's) is playing as a stakeholder in the Water and Sanitation Sector is two-fold and is defined in Sections 28 to 30 in Part VI of the Regional Councils Act, Act 22 of 1992 as amended in 1997, 2000, and 2002 as well as Part VII Sections 31 and 32 of the same Act. The first, and main function of a RC, is to be in control of all aspects of planning and development related to socio-economic, natural resources, land utilisation and infrastructure in the region with specific reference made to water. A very interesting provision in the RC Act is that of Section 28(1)(f) stating that a Regional Council shall have the power to “... assist local authority councils in the exercise and performance of its powers, duties and functions.” This is a very important provision to consider especially related to the establishment of Regional Electricity Distribution providers and where NamWater has taken over the management of water accounts of local authorities where LA's have failed to demonstrate their ability to effectively manage their internal affairs. Given the provision of Section 28(1)(i),(iii), (iv), (v), and (vi), and in the absence of a clear definition of the term “State” in the Water Act, water as a natural resource in any specific region belongs to that RC and any planning, development of or abstraction from any source or management thereof should be done in close consultation with a RC and where services are provided outside Local Authority areas it should happen in agreement with a RC in accordance with the provisions as per Section 30 of the Act. In addition to being responsible for overall planning in regions, RC's are also responsible for the management of settlement areas as declared in accordance with the provision of Section 31 of the Act. In terms of the provisions of Section 32 of the Act, this management and control of settlement areas will be in accordance with the provision of Sections 30, and 34 to 44 in the Local Authorities Act. The role and functions to be performed by the RC in this 51 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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regard would therefore be identical as those discussed in the next section on Local Authorities.

Local Authorities Sections 30 and 34 to 44 in Parts V, VI and VII of the Local Authorities Act, Act 23 of 1992 as amended in 1997, 2000, 2002, and 2004 defines the roles and responsibilities of Local Authorities (LA's) in terms of service provision within the water and sanitation sectors. Section 30(1) of the LA Act states that LA's shall have the power to: • Supply water to the residents in its area for household, business or industrial purposes; • Provide, maintain and carry on a system of sewerage and drainage for the benefit of the residents in its area; • Provide, maintain and carry on services to such residents for the removal, destruction or disposal of night soil, slop water and all other kinds of refuse or otherwise offensive or unhealthy matter; and • Determine by notice in the Gazette the charges, fees and other moneys payable in respect of any service, amenity or facility established and provided by it under this Act or any other law or any matter regulated and controlled by it. Section 34 of the Act outlines the mandate, duties and responsibilities LA's have in terms of the establishment, acquisition, construction, operation and maintenance of any waterworks, either within or even outside its area in order to provide its water users with a reliable water supply of a quality suitable to the needs of the users. Section 35 of the Act expands the mandate of LAs to include the supply of water to persons other than residents in its area based on mutual agreements. This provision could create a conflict situation in terms of the mandate and functions as provided for NamWater as well as potentially for Water Point Committees or Water Point Associations. Local Authorities are further tasked, under Section 36 of the Act, with the responsibility to monitor water supply conditions and should the need arises limit or restrict the supply of water to its users should water shortages be imminent due to drought conditions or supply interruptions. In addition to the responsibility of a LA to supply water to its residents, it has an added responsibility to provide sewerage and drainage services to the residents of its area. Sections 38 to 44 in Part VII of the Act outlines and describe the responsibilities and mandate of a LA in this regard. According to these provisions, a LA should acquire, construct, operate, and maintain sewerage and storm water drainage systems that would ensure a safe and healthy environment for its residents of which the final product could be discharged, subject to the provisions of the Water Act, into public watercourses. 52 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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Water Point Associations The last decentralised institution is Water Point Committees or Water Point Associations (WPA). The functions of these WPA's will be to manage and control water service provision by the water point or water supply scheme. This will include financial management and billing for water abstraction. This will also include the responsibility of setting water tariffs that would not only cover the bulk supply cost of water, but also provide for the cost of maintenance, replacement and expansion. It is nowhere mentioned that these tariffs will be subject to approval by the Water Regulator proposed in the WRA. A further function of these WPA's would be to maintain the water points as well as protect it against vandalism. One concern about the management of these committees or associations is the stringent provision with regard to financial management and reporting. It is seriously doubted whether these rural communities have the capacity to fulfil these requirements as well as to afford the costs involved in having their accounts audited before submission to the Minister.

4.6 SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT The Namibia Water Resources Management Review (NWRMR) did a thorough and comprehensive review of institutions involved in managing water resources in Namibia. Many of the findings at that stage are still true today and in certain cases some issues have worsen since then. Section 4 of the Institutions and Community Participation: Theme Report (NWRMR 2003b) provides a comprehensive analysis of the situation at that time, which is still the case today.

4.6.1 Department of Water Affairs The Department of Water Affairs is central to the implementation of any water resources management plan. The ability of the DWAF to perform this task would therefore be critical in setting the environment in which all other role-players and stakeholders can contribute towards the process. Although the DWAF faces many constraints which are hampering their capacity and ability to deliver efficient services, the Department continued to carry out their functions in many aspects. The following were challenges identified by the review that are placing limitations on the Department in terms of its operations and performance: • Lack of a properly integrated resource management system. • Lack of comprehensive legal framework • Absence of a formal regulatory framework. • Absence of clearly defined objectives and accountability mechanisms. • Absence of strategies for delivering value for money (VFM). • Absence of strategies for meeting devolution policies. • Lack of community ownership. 53 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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A concern of the review was that there was a limited readiness and capacity within the DWA at that time to meet new challenges. The Ministry and DWA did in fact set out to initiate change, but so far little have been achieved. The 1999-2004 Strategic Plan highlighted a few areas on which the Ministry will focus to align itself to the requirements and expectations of NDP 2. These were: • Align all planning processes on all levels to national objectives • Introduce a participatory management planning process • Strengthen senior management capacity • Review the roles, responsibilities and structure of the senior management team • Empower middle and operational managers • Developing a monitoring and evaluation system that will enable the Ministry to monitor, measure and improve the performance for all business groups • Developing key performance indicators for each business group Since the 2000 Review and coming to the end of the previous strategic plan cycle, it would appear that the Ministry found it very difficult to break free from the issues that have limited it in its attempts to become more responsive to the needs of improved service delivery. The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), following calls from across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, initiated a strategic planning process for the entire government service that should be based on the balanced scorecard approach. This should, in theory at least, align the activities of all Ministries, Agencies and Offices in order to become more effective and efficient in achieving national development goals as expressed in Vision 2030. MAWF published their Strategic Plan 2008/9 to 2012/13 in 2008 (MAWF 2008b). Of the seven strategic focus areas (SFA's) identified, four directly relates to DWAF activities. These are: • Capacity building • Infrastructure development, maintenance and operation • Sustainable natural resources management • Improvement of socio-economic environmental conditions With initiative of the OPM and utilizing the balanced scorecard system, the Ministry now has a tool to effectively implement a monitoring and evaluation system based on the key performance areas that will have to be agreed upon with each staff member working for the Ministry as the plan becomes cascaded down to middle and lower management. The fear however is that the OPM does not have the necessary skills and capacity to assist line Ministries in completing the planning and cascading process which will leave the Ministry and ultimately the DWAF in exactly the same position as before – not being able to 54 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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implement or having access to the necessary resources required for the implementation an IWRMP. The 2000 NWRMR also highlighted the serious lack of capacity within the DWA as well as the ability of the Ministry to fill vacant positions with suitably qualified and skilled professional and technical staff.

4.6.2 Namibia Water Corporation Limited NamWater as described in section 5.5.2.2 is a government-commercialized entity, which was created by statute in 1998 for purposes of bulk water supply throughout Namibia. The main functions of the Corporation is the development, operation and management of an efficient and economic system of water supply, in particular the supply of water in bulk to customers, in sufficient quantities, and of a quality suitable for the customers’ purposes. In fulfilling its main mandate NamWater is performing in terms providing bulk water supply to its customer. But, as is the case with many institutions, there are and will always be shortcomings those identified for NamWater are, amongst others: • Little transparency to gain consumer confidence • Insufficient dissemination information to the consumers • Lack of proper separation of operation between NamWater and Rural Water Supply in the communal areas. This has escalated to a point where there is some confusion about who is responsible in certain instances for bulk water and infrastructure supply. • No clear and formal agreement on the relationship with the MAWF and the DWAF • The responsibility of NamWater manage resources and its involvement in the resource management role • Absence of a regulator It would further appear that NamWater faces a similar capacity problem as the DWAF with its inability to attract adequately qualified and skilled professional and technical staff.

4.6.3 Regional Councils and Local Authorities From the water management point of view, the importance of Regional Councils and Local Authorities as the first end-user interface in water supply and in regional water planning will be critical. Regional Councils and Councillors would appear to be impatient and frustrated, knowing what needs to be done in their regions. Regional Councils in general faces two major obstacles that will have to be overcome. The first is a severe reduction in management capacity due to a lack of qualified and motivated staff and the second is budgetary constraints. 55 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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The poor performances showed by Regional Councils since their establishment also did not do them any good in terms of demonstrating to central government that they are able and ready to accept bigger responsibilities. Although there is a common perception that these Councils are being held back by the reluctance of line-Ministries to transfer duties, staff and budgets to them, there is a serious concern about the ability of the Councils to absorb these without a reduction in service delivery. Local Authorities find themselves in a very similar and precarious position. Although Local Authorities in Namibia may differ in terms of sizes and capacity they all have the same operational objectives. It would therefore be fair to analyse their performance in terms of water reticulation and sanitation together. Well-established local authorities have existing capacities and good infrastructure for reticulation and sanitation services if compared to the newly established ones. Having said this, recent experiences showed that, apart from a small number of Local Authorities, the majority are finding them increasingly in a position of not being able to maintain and operate local water and sanitation infrastructure, expand on it or even to find the necessary resources to invest in new ones. Management capacity, especially financial management, is poor and LA's often find themselves in a situation where the Ministry of Regional, Local Government, Housing and Rural Development (MRLGHRD) has to bail them out as bulk supplies to these towns and villages are disconnected because of growing overdue accounts. Serious consideration should therefore be give to strategies on how to overcome this situation. Training and capacity building is often touted as the miracle cure to this ill, but if one considers the amount of resources invested during the recent past by MRLGHRD on capacity building and training and one measures the impact of this, it is clear that this will not be enough. Alternative strategies such as mentoring and delivery benchmarking could become useful tools to support RC's and LA's in improving their service delivery capability.

4.7 CONCLUSION This chapter focused on assessing institutional capacity in terms of generic integrated water resources management requirements. At this stage it would be premature to analyse the structures and institutions proposed by the WRMA as the feasibility of these structures first needs to be reviewed against what would be required by a realistic IWRMP for Namibia. However, in terms of the existing institutions that would likely continue to play a critical role in the implementation of any IWRMP, it is clear that Namibia faces an enormous challenge. Three major issues have been identified being: • Weak leadership • Very little internal professional and technical capacity, and • Challenges to retain the little capacity still available • Budgetary constraints 56 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation

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Namibia can invest in the most modern and appropriate technology, but implementing an IWRMP requires human resources and capacities, as well as sufficient funding. Developing the necessary capacities will take some time and this will delay mandated institutions in their attempts to delivering the necessary outputs required for successful implementation. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 57 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

5 STATUS OF BASELINE DATA FOR RAINFALL

5.1 RELEVANCE OF CLIMATE TO THE WATER SECTOR An accurate understanding of Namibia's climate as well as the interaction between climatic and physical determinants is at the heart of the water environment, especially as these relate to the availability of fresh water resources. The quantity of flow in an ephemeral stream depends on the frequency and intensity of rainfall as well as the condition of the catchment. In turn, infiltration and recharge depend on the quantity of rainfall falling directly on the ground and the quantity of water entering aquifers from flowing streams and perennial rivers. However, infiltration rates are also related to soil types and levels of silt load in the stream. The latter of these is, in turn, also related to catchment condition, including vegetation cover. An understanding of these processes is essential if planning and management within the water sector is to be carried out in a sustainable manner.

5.2 RAINFALL

5.2.1 Introduction Namibia's position in the sub-tropics ensures that it is affected by circulation systems prevailing in both the tropics to the north and temperate latitudes to the south. At the same time it is dominated by the high pressure systems that, when averaged, constitute the semi- permanent, subtropical high pressure cells of the general circulation of the southern hemisphere. Effectively, the northern part of Namibia is situated in an area which is traversed by the boundary between two climate systems, the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the Mid Latitude High Pressure Areas. In addition, the temperate zone includes the far south of Namibia but only at times, since all the zones have northward and southward movement depending on the time of year. The middle of these three zones is one of very little rainfall. The variations in the extent and timing of movement of these zones lead to Namibia's rainfall patterns, which are characterised by their high temporal and spatial variability. Conventional statistical descriptions such as mean, and even median are often of limited use. Estimates of rainfall characteristics and patterns based on point measurements are problematic due to the huge spatial and temporal variability. It is generally accepted that the accuracy and usefulness of these estimates are directly related to rain gauge density, and the reliability and length of rainfall records.

5.2.2 Data Collection Rainfall (precipitation) data in Namibia are collected by a number of organisations, the most important of which are: • Namibia Meteorological Services (NMS) • Hydrology Division in the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) and • Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN) IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 58 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

In addition to its 20 manned multi-sensor weather stations, the NMS receives daily rainfall data on a monthly or seasonal basis from approximately 380 volunteer observers, although over the years data have been collected and stored for more than 1 000 stations. In 2000 DWA operated 26 autographic rainfall stations that collect data on a continuous (rather than just daily total) basis. Currently there are 21 stations in operation. The period of record ranges between 20 and 47 years. There are data for an additional 45 stations which are now closed. Since 1962, the DRFN has collected precipitation data at 40 different locations although many of these were for short periods only. In 2000 seven stations were open of which four record continuous data. The DRFN stations are of particular interest because of the inclusion of several Standard Fog Collectors with data loggers (Henschel, Seely et al. 1998). Although the seven locations at which fog has been collected are all within 50 km of Gobabeb, they do cover an area from close to the coast (Rooibank) to as far inland as Ganab. Fog collectors with loggers are operated at Ganab, Kleinberg, Klipneus, Rooibank, Swartbank and Vogelfederberg. It has not been possible to obtain the latest data from the NMS. Data quoted in this study is from the year 2000. The quality of data for NMS's own stations and the majority of its observer stations was good, but there are certainly a number of stations for which data are suspect, either in that the gauges are not always read daily, or that the observer may occasionally be absent. At the time NMS readily acknowledged that there was a serious backlog with respect to the processing of rainfall data, not only of the rainfall intensity data which requires a lot of work, but also of daily rainfall data. Data were relatively up-to-date for approximately 100 of the 315 stations in operation, but only 30 key stations were completely up-to-date. Almost no rainfall intensity data had been processed for NMS stations for more than a decade. Bearing in mind the investment of time and money that was made to collect the data, as well as the desperate need for good data as input into various studies, it is worrying that it has not been possible to obtain more useful information from the data. DWA's autographic stations are susceptible to instrument failure that can only be detected and rectified during visits to the stations. Processing of the data collected is relatively up-to- date for the majority of stations, although backlogs exist for many of the stations. The locations of rain gauges registered with NMS are shown in All open and closed stations with more than ten years of record have been plotted, since these may be long enough to provide useful data. The map shows clearly that the coastal belt, the entire far north and the north-east are sparsely covered. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 59 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

Figure 5.1: Location of NMS Rain Gauges

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Table 5.1 shows how many rain gauges there are in the Water Basins. It should be noted that these data were relevant in 2000 and the latest figures could not be obtained from the NMS. The table will be updated if the latest information is received. Although Namibia is an arid country with a large land mass and a small population, there are undoubtedly areas that do not have adequate rain gauge coverage. Worst affected basins are the Kunene, Eiseb-Epukiro and Zambezi-Kwando-Linyanti basins. It is recognised (Agnew and Anderson 1992) that in the arid zone "problems of hydrometry, hydrological analysis and interpretation, and water resource assessment and development are severe". Indeed the most severe problem is the most basic; what to measure and where to measure it. In its Guide to Hydrological Practices (WMO, 1974) the World Meteorological Organisation defines optimum and minimum data collection networks as follows:

Optimum Network: "By interpolation between values at different stations, it should be possible to determine (with sufficient accuracy for practical purposes) the characteristics of the basic hydrological and meteorological elements anywhere in the country. By characteristic is meant all quantitative data, averages and extremes that define the statistical distribution of the elements studied "; and

Minimum Network: "Is one which will avoid serious deficiencies in developing and managing water resources on a scale commensurate with the overall economic development of the country". For most of the arid zones in the world, the network is either minimum or sub-minimum. It is important to understand the purposes for gathering rainfall data and the uses to which they are going to be put. This will make possible a more reasoned analysis of where the serious gaps are. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 61 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

Table 5.1: NMS Rain Gauge Network in Namibia

WATER BASIN RAIN GAUGES RAINGAUGES TOTAL OPEN CLOSED Cuvelai - Etosha 28 28 56 Zambezi-Kwando- 1 1 2 Linyanti Kunene 3 3 6 Ugab - Huab 23 38 61 Omaruru - Swakop 48 82 130 Kuiseb 5 23 28 Okavango-Omatako 39 46 85 Tsondab-Koichab 17 21 38 Orange-Fish 46 80 126 Nossob-Aub 87 103 190 Eiseb-Epukiro 16 12 28

The main applications of rainfall data in Namibia can be summarised as follows, together with an indicative description of the quantity and type of data that may be required: • Understanding and quantifying the water balance (or localised hydrological cycle) on a catchment, regional and national basis. This means that sufficient rainfall data are required to be able to state what the precipitation input is to the water balance. • Detailed data for users dependent on real-time figures. Users such as farmers who rely on irrigation, need to look at soil moisture deficit and other related parameters. • Rainfall/runoff modelling. In view of the fact that runoff measurement stations are expensive to erect and maintain, it is necessary to measure rainfall at a number of locations and to estimate the runoff that would be generated by the rainfall. • National and Regional Planning. Information on rainfall helps the planning of drought relief and general strategies. • Estimation of flood lines and design of structures (intensity data are important here). • Ecological and land-use studies. • Investigating and monitoring of climate change. With respect to this Water Resources Management Plan, this is obviously a key application of rainfall data. In considering these applications, it is clear that a limited number of rain gauges are required to cover the country, at least to monitor trends for climate change and, bearing in mind that areas which have apparently little economic importance today, may suddenly become development centres tomorrow. Agnew et al (1992) suggests that: "within the arid zone, the optimum rain gauge network would consist of a relatively sparse distribution of recording and totalising gauges, spread to take into account the major landscape variables and climatic elements. This would be supplemented by a IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 62 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

number of dense networks of recording gauges, sited in representative locations. To this would be added, according to logistical possibilities, daily rain gauges." While a detailed analysis of how and where exactly the data collection network should be improved is beyond the scope of this study, it is important to take note of the fact that any conclusions based on rainfall data will only be as good as the data from which they are derived. This highlights the need for monitoring the status of rainfall data collection and processing and deciding on steps to be taken to establish a useful network of rain gauges. It should also be noted that more than one organization in the country collects rainfall data. These data should be collected at a central point where they can be processed and compiled into useful information sets.

5.2.3 Annual Rainfall The annual rainfall data is presented in Figure 5.2: Long Term Mean and Median Rainfall in Namibia and shows isohyets of mean and median annual precipitation for Namibia based on all stations with 10 or more years of record. The decreasing trend from northeast to south-west is both clear and uniform with only a few anomalies such as the area of high rainfall around Grootfontein and Tsumeb. The two most predominant features of Namibia's climate are the scarcity and unpredictability of its rainfall. Namibia's climate is second in aridity only to the Sahara Desert within Africa (Barnard 1998). Steep gradients characterise the rainfall map from tropical semi-humid (3% of land area) to hyper-arid in the west (12% of land area). Country-wide average rainfall is approximately 272 mm. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 63 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

Examination of Figure 5.2: Long Term Mean and Median Rainfall in Namibia highlights the problem of relying on "mean" as a measure of the average or normal situation. The median is a measure of what can be expected 50% of the time, or on average, every second year. According to Figure 5.2: Long Term Mean and Median Rainfall in Namibia, the mean rainfall for Keetmanshoop is 155 mm and the median is 125 mm, or 20% less. For the less arid areas in the north-east, the mean is closer to the median. For example, the mean for the Rundu area is 580 mm, and the median 560 mm (4% less). In the extremely arid areas the median can be less than half of the mean. Variability from year to year is high. This becomes even clearer when rainfall variability is examined in more detail.

Figure 5.2: Long Term Mean and Median Rainfall in Namibia IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 64 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

5.2.4 Rainfall Variability For those dependent on rainfall both directly and indirectly, the mean and even median rainfall figures can be misleading. The pattern of rainfall is highly seasonal, being concentrated within a few months, with 90% falling between November and March. This is further compounded by rainfall being highly variable in time and space, both within and between years. This has a direct impact on the growth of vegetation and crops, the movements of people, domestic stock and wildlife, flooding of the rivers and groundwater recharge. The concept of rainfall variability is therefore important. As a measure of variability, Figure 5.3 shows the average deviation as a percentage of mean annual precipitation (MAP). Variability is highest in the most arid parts of the country. If, as some suggest, variability is one of the things that may increase as a result of climate change, the effect in semi-arid and arid areas could be very severe.

Figure 5.3: Variability in Annual Rainfall in Namibia

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In addition to annual rainfall and rainfall variability, it is also important to look at the distribution of rainfall through the year. An annual total of 400 mm spread evenly over a four or five month period is very different from 400 mm spread over only two months. Figure 5.4 shows the distribution of mean monthly rainfall for stations representing the main climatic regions of Namibia.

200.00

180.00 Keetmanshoop 160.00 Swakop Windhoek 140.00 Gobabis

120.00 Opuwa Ondangwa 100.00 Katima

80.00

Mean Rainfall(mm) Mean 60.00

40.00

20.00

0.00 Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Month

Figure 5.4: Mean Monthly Rainfall for Selected Key Stations

Throughout Namibia, the rainfall season is limited to a core period of December to March. The rainy season usually starts earlier in the north and north-east and often goes on into April in the central and southern areas.

5.2.5 Rainfall Intensity Rainfall intensity is defined as the rate at which precipitation falls with respect to time. It is measured using a recording rain gauge that records time as well as the quantity of rain falling at a point. A number of these gauges are operated in Namibia (20 by NMS office in 2000 and 21 by DWA in 2009). However, the majority of the data collected have not been processed, because of a shortage of staff. This unfortunate state of affairs means that there are a number of stations for which potentially useful and relatively long records exist, but that these data will not be available until the backlogs have been cleared. An understanding of rainfall intensity is important for many other aspects relating to the water sector. For example, it is often the intensity of a storm rather than the quantity which has the greatest effect on runoff, and especially on flood peaks.

5.3 EVAPORATION Evaporation, which can be defined as the process in which liquid water is converted into vapour, has been measured at a number of locations around Namibia and adjacent countries since 1951, using either Symons or Class-A evaporimeters. Both of these are essentially water-tight containers with surface areas of approximately one square metre. The IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 66 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

fall in depth of the water level in the open pan is taken as equal to evaporation since seepage losses are not possible from a sealed container. The effect of rainfall is taken into account by making measurements at an adjacent rain gauge and adding the rainfall depth to the observed water level drop in the pan. Data quoted for evaporation pans are gross evaporation and the difference between gross and nett evaporation is explained as follows (Crerar 1988). "If rainfall occurs during the measurement of evaporation the observed depth of water vaporized will be reduced. This observed depth corresponds to nett evaporation. In order to calculate the gross evaporation, the depth of precipitation measured in an adjacent rain gauge must be added to the observed nett evaporation." While nett evaporation may seem the more useful of the two measurements, there are several reasons why it is important to know the gross evaporation in many hydrological applications. It is important to note, however, that evaporation from an A-pan is higher than from a large open water surface. This is because the water in the small silver A-pan heats up quickly during the day and cools down rapidly at night. It is therefore necessary to apply a reduction factor to the gross A-pan evaporation quoted for a particular location. A study aimed at deriving reduction factors for large open water surfaces was carried out by the Hydrology Division in DWA (Sivertsen 1991). This study concluded that a reduction factor of 0.8 should be used for the months of January through to June, and 0.7 for July to December. Several evaporation stations (almost exclusively A-pan) are still in operation, run by both the Hydrology Division within DWA and the NMS, although processing is several years behind. To bring the backlog up to date would take several person years. A report compiled in 1988 (Crerar 1988) was the last time that all available data were processed and used to obtain an overview of evaporation in Namibia. Fortunately, due to the fact that annual variations in evaporation are relatively small (very small when compared to fluctuations in rainfall), up-to- date figures are not absolutely necessary for many studies, and the map included in this report as well as the data on which it is based are sufficient for most applications. However, in view of the fact that the map was drawn up using very limited data for many areas, in particular the north and coastal areas, it would be useful to update this map using the new data that have been collected but not processed. This is particularly serious for the coastal belt since it is this zone which is likely to differ markedly from other areas of the country. Evaporation figures along the coastal belt will be markedly affected by coastal fog, the strong and hot east winds and the sometimes cold summer temperatures. The National Evaporation Map, produced in 1988, is shown in Figure 5.5. It should be noted that the figures provided correspond to millimetres of gross A-pan evaporation. If the mean nett evaporation for a large open water surface were to be calculated from this, both a reduction coefficient and the mean annual rainfall would have to be taken into account. While it is not necessary to measure evaporation as intensively as rainfall, the importance of evaporation in Namibia should not be underestimated. At all of Namibia's major dams, losses through evaporation far outstrip the quantity of water actually drawn off for water supply. Water is also lost through transpiration and seepage, although the amount is unknown.

IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 67 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

Figure 5.5: Evaporation Map of Namibia

For an arid country, Namibia has a large number of surface water supply dams, and hence losses to the atmosphere are high. In order to combat evaporation losses, NamWater attempts to transfer water from dams with inefficient basin characteristics to those with more efficient storage characteristics. Water stored in the Omatako Dam, for example, is transferred to the Von Bach Dam as quickly as possible. In addition, when there is an alternate source to the dam, that can be used later, as much water as possible is taken from the dam when it is full and as little as possible from the alternate source, giving the alternate source time to recover. Further details are provided in the discussion on artificial recharge. In any discussion of evaporation, it is necessary also to consider evapotranspiration and potential evaporation. The latter is important for areas of water deficiency, where it is defined IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 68 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

as the amount of water which would be evaporated from the soil and transpired from standard vegetation provided there is an adequate amount of water in the soil Throughout Namibia, potential evaporation exceeds rainfall for the year, with some areas in the south of the country exceeding 2 000 mm.

5.4 OTHER CLIMATIC DETERMINANTS A number of other climatic determinants are indirectly associated with the water environment and with the climatic determinants already discussed. For example, evaporation is affected by air temperature, relative humidity, wind, solar radiation and water chemistry. Information and data on these have been taken from Hutchinson (Hutchinson 1993) These are briefly discussed as follows :

5.4.1 Solar Radiation Although days are obviously longer during the summer months, the presence of clouds at this time of the year, can mean that the hours of sunshine are greater during the winter months. This is especially true of the high rainfall areas. For example in Katima Mulilo August has 10.7 hours of sunshine, while the average for February is only 6.5 hours. By comparison, for Keetmanshoop, January, with 11 .7 hrs is the month with the most hours of sunshine and this reduces to 9.6 hours in June.

5.4.2 Average Temperatures The coastal strip has its own temperature regime, with the possibility of high temperatures at any time of the year. Elsewhere, there is a marked seasonal regime with the highest temperatures occurring just before the wet season in the wetter areas, and during the wet season in the drier areas. A useful summary is provided in Hutchinson (Hutchinson 1993).

5.4.3 Wind Only at the coast do mean wind speeds exceed three metres per second. In general, in the interior, August, September, October November and December are the windiest months.

5.4.4 Relative Humidity Relative humidity is the amount of moisture in the air compared to the maximum amount the air could hold at that temperature, expressed as a percentage. A decrease in temperature would increase the relative humidity. For Windhoek, March is the most humid month at 51%, compared to September at 18%. For Rundu, February is the most humid month at 72%, dropping to 33% in September.

5.5 RUN-OFF, INFILTRATION AND RECHARGE PROCESSES

5.5.1 Introduction Namibia's ephemeral rivers are "effluent" systems. This means that the groundwater tables are fed by the river, rather than a high water table acting as source for the river, as is the case with "influent" rivers. Only a small proportion of the rain that falls on a particular IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 69 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

catchment ends up as flow in the river. The "depth" of rain that becomes runoff is referred to as "unit runoff" and is normally expressed in mm. A Unit Runoff map and report (Chivell and Crerar 1992), based on almost all available data at the time was drawn up for Namibia and confirms these figures. Indeed it shows that many areas of Namibia had unit runoff values close to zero and that the maximum mean annual value was only 25 mm for areas of the Fish River catchment. In general, for the ephemeral systems in Namibia, the percentage of MAP that ends up as river flow varies from as little as <1% up to around 12,5% for parts of the Fish River catchment. The remainder goes to direct evaporation and evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration is by far the greatest component. Some of the runoff referred to in this percentage also ultimately goes to recharge of alluvial aquifers on its way downstream, and in so doing, the majority of ephemeral river floods ultimately disappear entirely into the sand. The unit run-ff map for Namibia is shown in Figure 5.6. An examination of the World unit run-off map shows very clearly that Namibia is one of the countries falling entirely within a less than 50 mm unit runoff zone.

5.5.2 Rainfall/Run-Off Modeling Attempts at rainfall/runoff modelling for Namibian conditions have been developed over the last 15-20 years and have shown that the influences of anthropogenic factors are complex. Antecedent catchment conditions, that is those factors relating to catchment conditions before a rainfall event, have a very strong influence on runoff and infiltration and hence recharge as well. The concept of "negative serial correlation" ties in with the concept of the effect of antecedent conditions. In the arid Namibian situation, contrary to the norm observed in more temperate zones, rainfall following long dry periods can produce more runoff than rainfall following a wet period. This introduces the paradox that "good runoff" is the result of "bad land management". Although this is an over-simplification, the idea can be physically explained by the fact that drought periods generally result in poor vegetation growth and overgrazing, and it is this very lack of ground cover that leads to greater overland flow (with higher velocities), increased erosion and sediment transport. This simple fact raises the apparent paradox that above- normal quantities of runoff in the rivers may be as much a sign of poor catchment conditions and land management as of above average rainfall. It will be necessary to bear this in mind when interpreting the meaning and implications of trends in runoff. Clearly good land management can help and promote good grazing, reducing erosion and soil loss. A reduction in runoff at the gauging stations would seem likely to follow although this may not be the case in the long run for the following reasons. Initially, a change for the better with respect to good land management should result in a reduction in runoff. However, studies such as SABRINA, the Study of Alluvial Bed Recharge, Induced and Natural (Wheeler, Crerar et al. 1987), have shown that heavily silt-laden floodwaters often fail to yield good recharge because the small silt particles block the pores in the sandy river bed. This may explain why groundwater levels are much lower than they used to be several decades ago in most rivers. Thus it can be assumed that good land IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 70 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

management leading to a reduction in silt load will result in increased recharge rates, even with reduced flows in the rivers.

Figure 5.6: Unit Run-off Map of Namibia

Clearly the complexities of the natural system make it difficult to identify any trends. Even the above illustration would be difficult to prove for lack of sufficient historical data and the indisputable effect of increased water abstraction by farmers or other human users such as mines and agencies responsible for large-scale abstraction. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 71 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

5.6 ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT SITUATION As discussed already, Namibia, as an arid country, has a water sector that is particularly exposed to the vagaries of drought. At the same time, while rainfall is an unreliable and irregular phenomenon, outputs such as evaporation, evapotranspiration and abstraction are continuous. Water resources have to be managed in such a way that they last through the long periods of drought. Not only does drought mean reduced rainfall, it also generally leads to a shortage of grazing, overgrazing and hence catchment degradation and ultimately the erosion of topsoil. High sediment loads in the rivers result in a reduction of aquifer recharge. Clearly there is a desperate need for a holistic approach to catchment management. Within the government, parastatal agencies and the private sector, there are a number of organisations responsible for the collection and analysis of the essential data and information discussed in this chapter. Ongoing research is also carried out by these agencies with the aim of achieving the required understanding. This is no easy task as human resources and levels of expertise are often not sufficient for the work to be carried out adequately. The most worrying trend, especially in a developing country such as Namibia with its limited financial resources, is that large sums of money have been spent on collecting equally large amounts of data but that there are often not the required human resources or financial resources to process the data and thus render it useful. As a result it is inevitable that the decisions required to ensure holistic management on a sustainable basis are based on limited information. The availability of data that has been collected and processed, and the accessing of data from existing data bases has also proven to be a major problem which needs to be addressed.

5.7 CONSIDERATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS In view of Namibia's intrinsic fragility with respect to over exploitation of its water, land and other natural resources, the need to formulate strategies and solutions for sustainability cannot be overemphasised. A fundamental concern and consideration in this respect is to improve the level of data collection, processing and analysis. Major requirements include: • An improved data collection network for rainfall in many areas, i.e. better distribution and coverage, especially the entire north from west to east and for evaporation data on the coast. Commercial farmers have traditionally collected rainfall data for NMS, and it is necessary to look at expanding this support into the communal farming areas. • Improved data processing to keep up with the data that are being collected, as well as to clear the backlog, which includes a decade or more of rainfall intensity and evaporation data. • Improved data base management and having data readily available when needed. • The monitoring of climate in order to track and plan for possible climate change. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 72 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Climate

• The monitoring of catchment conditions. It may be feasible to regularly monitor sample areas around the country using satellite imagery. • An holistic approach to catchment management where overgrazing on one farm affects more than just that farmer. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 73 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

6 STATUS OF BASELINE DATA FOR SURFACE WATER

6.1 INTRODUCTION Namibia's surface water resources can be divided broadly into two types, those derived from ephemeral (seasonal, non-permanent systems) and those derived from perennial systems. In the former group are included all the wetland areas and man-made storage dams on or associated with the sporadic flows of ephemeral rivers as well as pans, pools and other wetlands derived from local runoff. With the exception of short lengths of the Okavango and Kwando Rivers in the northeast of Namibia, all the rivers in Namibia's interior are ephemeral. Ephemeral rivers represent an important lifeline for people throughout the country either directly in the form of surface water, or indirectly from the groundwater sources which they recharge and from the plant and animal resources supported by these wetlands. The perennial rivers along Namibia's northern borders support many people living in relatively large numbers along their banks or close to them. Understanding and quantifying surface water and wetland resources, which includes knowing how much water flows in our rivers and the types and productivity of wetland plants and animals, is a difficult task and requires many years of data collection before results can be considered at all meaningful. This is especially true of both ephemeral and perennial rivers in arid and semi-arid climates where flows, like the rainfall from which they are derived, are unpredictable and variable. Various organisations have been responsible for this task over the last 50 years since the first continuous records were kept. Records for water levels in the perennial rivers go back as far as 1943 when water levels of the Zambezi River at Katima Mulilo were first kept, while the first water level recording station on an ephemeral river was opened on the Omaruru River in the same year and is still in operation today.

6.2 HYDROLOGY Surface water flow data is collected through a nation-wide hydrometric network, which is now jointly operated by DWA and NAMWATER. In April 1999 the Hydrology division installed a new database system (HYDSYS), for data processing, to replace the old UNIX db database, which had become outdated. According to DWAF, HYDSYS is well suited for the processing of hydrological data in Namibia. There are a variety of data input procedures, namely digitising of charts, reading of files generated by loggers, spreadsheets, text files and direct typing of data. Reports for daily, monthly and annual totals also include basic statistics. A powerful graphical interface is available. There are also several useful utilities for data that were not stored before, like instrumentation and station survey data. The hydrology database contains: • River and dam levels, and from those calculated river flows or inflows. • Rain intensities, from Weather Bureau and DWA Hydrology stations. • Daily rains copied from Weather Bureau and from private observers. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 74 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

• Monthly class A evaporation pan data • Various related information. DWA Hydrology also reports that the data base has calculated tabular information, in particular: • Synthesized monthly flow records for sites of hydrological importance, for instance with existing or studied dams, and for alluvial aquifers. • Yield/reliability results for these sites. • Flood frequency results for these and other sites. • For the purpose of flood control, DWA also collects in real time: o Cloud and cloud temperature images from Meteosat. o Reports from DWA Hydrology and other observers in catchments regarding rainfall and river-flow. Historically, the network was designed to collect data for studies related to bulk water supply from dams. As a result, the network covers most major river systems, but not to the detail that would be required for small scale development of rural dams. The one area where information is particularly inadequate is the Cuvelai, the reasons being that there was never a prospect for large dam construction in the region. On the borders, there are accurate long-term records in the north (Kunene, Okavango, Kwando, and Zambezi), but not in the south. The main reason is that the information that can be obtained from RSA is adequate. On the regional level, real-time information for the Orange River (RSA), the Okavango River (Botswana) and the Zambezi River (Zambia), is exchanged. Namibia also has become part of the SADC Hydrological Cycle Observation System project (HYCOS) and has started with the installation of satellite telemetric stations. There is now also co-operation with the Zambezi River Authority in operating radio telemetry stations in the Zambezi Basin. The majority of river flow data are collected by the Hydrology Division in DWA, although NamWater is responsible for data collection at Namibia's major dams and other bulk-water extraction schemes. It was reported in 2000 (SOE Water) that DWA operates approximately 150 gauging stations throughout the country on both ephemeral and perennial rivers. This number has currently reduced to 88 (DWAF list of “All hydro stations 2008). Figure 6.1 shows Namibia's ephemeral and perennial rivers together with all continuous recording water level stations (currently operating and closed stations). Water levels are recorded automatically at these stations and the data are collected at regular intervals, and then converted into flow data at a later stage. In this way an improved quantification and understanding of flow in Namibia's rivers is gradually being achieved. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 75 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

Figure 6.1: Gauging Stations on Ephemeral and Perennial Rivers

It is critically important to understand the steps and inherent difficulties involved in collecting water level data and turning it into useful runoff information. The principles for both ephemeral and perennial stations are the same, only the obstacles to be overcome for ephemeral stations are that much greater. The most obvious difficulty with ephemeral rivers is the fact that the rivers are dry for most of the time, and when they do flow it is with little or no warning or predictability. A continuous water level hydrograph (water level against time) is recorded automatically usually using a float system linked to a chart recorder, although this system is gradually being replaced by pressure transducers or bubble gauges linked to electronic data loggers. This is the first step of the process and a certain amount of data are usually lost or missed at this point for a number of reasons including: • Human error in setting up the instrumentation • Clock/chart transportation problems and IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 76 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

• Sensor/intake problems including blockage of intakes by mud and silt so that they record with questionable accuracy or not at all. The first two of these problems are reduced through thorough and frequent checking of stations by hydrometric technicians and hydrologists. The third can only be solved by good site selection and good design, although this is not always possible. Once data have been collected, the volume of flow has to be calculated. Establishing a "rating" for a station is theoretically straightforward but in practice is very difficult to do accurately for ephemeral river stations, especially when there is no control structure present. When the theoretical ratings have been established, they need to be checked and verified in the field through a variety of methods all of which depend on being on site during flood events or soon after. Clearly there are organisational and logistical difficulties involved in the above process, even when sufficient numbers of suitably qualified and experienced personnel are available. Currently the majority of data is collected by a small number of technical assistants who receive occasional training from an already over-stretched staff of hydrologists. This situation has deteriorated, largely due to a lack of skilled technicians and is reflected by a reduction in the number of surveys that have been carried out in recent years. Decision-makers often fail to appreciate the value of reliable and accurate hydrological data. The processed runoff data on which they base their decisions are of little use if they have not been derived from accurate ratings. Considering that the evaluation of surface (and alluvial groundwater) resources depends almost entirely on reliable runoff data it is clear that it would be a grave error not to allocate sufficient resources to data collection, processing and quality control.

6.3 WETLANDS Namibia's wetlands have both economic and ecological importance and can be evaluated in terms of the value of the natural resources associated with them and their ecological functions. Wetland resources are renewable resources that can be used now and in the future, as long as they are used wisely. The "goods" or "resources" provided by wetlands include water, soil, sediment and nutrients, plants and animals, conservation and tourism, value, navigation and energy, aesthetics and various social values. The "services" provided by wetlands include primary production, flood attenuation, aquifer recharge, water quality improvement, and transport (for example of sediment, nutrients, animals and seeds). It is necessary to use water and wetland resources in a responsible and sustainable manner. Sustainable use implies management, so it is becoming increasingly important to know how wetlands function. The monitoring of both wetland productivity and the use of their resources is needed for successful management. With the ever increasing demand for water it is necessary to determine the amounts of water that should be set aside to maintain wetland productivity and ecological functions. The locations of Namibia’s wetlands are shown in Figure 6.2. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 77 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

Figure 6.2: Location of Wetlands in Namibia

6.4 PERENNIAL RIVERS Namibia is bordered on its southern border and much of its northern border by major perennial river systems. In the south, the Orange River runs the entire length of the border to the Atlantic Ocean. This river is heavily regulated in South Africa resulting in much reduced mean annual runoff and maximum flows by the time the river reaches the Namibian border, but increased base flow. In the north, the main systems are the Kunene River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean, the Okavango River, which runs along the northern border with Angola for 415 kilometres, before crossing through the Caprivi Strip to the Okavango Delta. Further to the east is the Zambezi River which runs along the Namibian border with Zambia for a hundred kilometres IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 78 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water on its long journey to the Indian Ocean. A tributary of the Zambezi River, the Kwando River, flows across the Caprivi Strip supplying water to the Linyanti River and Swamps and then the Chobe Swamp and River before joining the Zambezi on the border with Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Hydrology Division within the Department of Water Affairs, has been collecting information, including water level and discharge data on these systems for many years and co-operation with fellow riparian states is usually good with respect to a free exchange of data, usually through "joint river basin commissions". The quality and usefulness of data is generally much better than for ephemeral rivers and records go back to the 1940s. One of the reasons is that the presence of permanently flowing water makes for relatively stable conditions and permits the verification of ratings and other relevant data. Rivers are longitudinal ecosystems. The plants, animals and people using the water in any given place are obligatory and/or inadvertent samplers of upstream processes and activities. Unlike most other environments, what happens in the catchment many kilometres away will eventually pass all the inhabitants. For the aquatic fauna and flora there is no escape. Fortunately Namibia's northern rivers, with their exceptionally diverse fauna, continue to retain their natural self-cleaning processes and cycles, such that the water is still classed as excellent and the flood cycles are largely unregulated. Unlike many other countries in the world, the northern perennial rivers and their associated wetlands have not yet been polluted, enriched, channelled, impounded, drawn off or otherwise regulated or overexploited by man, on a large scale. They are national assets in their present states and all efforts should be made to manage and develop these wetlands on a sustainable basis.

6.5 EPHEMERAL RIVERS All the internal rivers of Namibia are ephemeral or seasonally flowing rivers. (See Figure 6.2). It is convenient to describe them in five main groupings: • The Westward flowing rivers. These include all the rivers flowing towards the coast and those which disappear in the sands of the Namib Desert, and the tributaries of the Kunene in the north. • Orange River tributaries, most notable of which is the Fish River. • Molopo River tributaries, which include the Nossob and Auob Rivers. These rivers are in the Orange Basin, but the tributaries are endoreic. • Cuvelai System. • Tributaries of the Okavango River, which include the Omatako River. Collection of reliable ephemeral runoff data is notoriously difficult and has yet to be mastered anywhere in the world. As a result, estimates of runoff volumes and flows are often inaccurate. Estimates of runoff in ephemeral rivers usually depend on indirect methods of measurement such as the measurement of water levels using a water level sensor coupled to a data logger or other automatic recording device. Water level alone is of limited use as an indicator of the quantity of water passing a certain point on a river since it has to be converted into volume or flow. The flow rate for any given level will depend on a number of factors such as the width of the river, the slope of the river and geometry of the river bed. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 79 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

Since the collection of this information is often tedious and time-consuming, and some parameters are not even stable with time, it is sometimes impossible to obtain reliable discharge data.

Figure 6.3: River Catchments

Ephemeral rivers are a vital source of water in Namibia both as surface water and as groundwater resulting from recharge. Both bulk consumers such as municipalities and mines, and all types of farmers are largely dependent on water in dams or ephemeral flow- recharged aquifers. The best possible quantification of the resource is therefore vital. Continuous water level data are collected on these ephemeral rivers. Many of these data have been carefully utilised in water resource studies when appraising the yield or usefulness of dam and dam sites, aquifer recharge rates, and abstraction schemes. Other studies, broader in nature have also been carried out, looking at basins or regions as a whole. One of these, the Unit Runoff map (Figure 5.6) and Report (Chivell, 1992) is particularly significant in that it attempted to utilise as much as possible of the available runoff data to compile a map showing runoff potential expressed in millimetres per unit area. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 80 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

The map confirmed what was already known, that the relationship between mean annual precipitation and mean annual runoff is a tenuous one. Some areas of low rainfall were shown to have runoff potential up to five times higher than areas with three times higher mean annual precipitation. There are many reasons for this and these have been discussed and evaluated in numerous studies on rainfall/runoff modelling. The unit runoff map's isolines taken from the 1992 map are presented in Figure 5.6. The first thing that is clear from the map is that large areas of the country are not covered. This is either because there were simply not sufficient data available (for example the Cuvelai basin) or the areas are of little interest in terms of runoff (the dunes of the Namib desert and the downstream reaches of the Nossob and Omatako River systems). Ephemeral rivers in Namibia form river corridors of resources that pass through the otherwise dry areas. They provide and maintain the natural resource base on which many rural communities depend. For instance, a single mature Faidherbia albida (Anna) tree can produce over 250 kg of pods per season (Fagg & Stewart, 1994) and so provides valuable, protein-rich fodder to both stock and wildlife. Ephemeral rivers are as much a linear habitat as are perennial rivers. The resources of water and vegetation found in them provide a habitat for many species that could not survive without them. Because they are linear, the area of habitat is small and so is vulnerable to change. Generally for ephemeral rivers, the trend is that the mean annual runoff increases from the source downstream. This is quite normal and is due to the fact that there are tributaries joining all the time. However, with the westward flowing rivers in Namibia, a point is reached in the desert or desert fringes where transmission losses exceed additions from tributaries. This "hinge point" represents the point at which the Mean Annual Runoff (MAR) starts to decrease. Figure 6.3 illustrates the Maximum Mean Annual Runoff for each of the major catchments. The values provided for each of the rivers corresponds to the hinge point or maximum MAR. It should be pointed out that for some catchments, such as the Swakop River, the point of maximum MAR has shifted upstream due to the effect of the major Von Bach and Swakoppoort storage dams.

IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 81 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

Figure 6.4: Mean Annual Run-offs for Ephemeral Rivers in Namibia

6.6 WATER BASINS In 2004 the DWAF adopted the principle that the water resources of Namibia must be managed in water basin management areas as shown in Figure 6.4 In demarcating water management basins, the criteria for the basins on national level were mainly based on the surface and groundwater catchments of the larger river systems. In most cases (an exception is the Kuiseb Basin) two or more rivers and their minor tributaries were combined in one larger basin. Here, other criteria such as water supply, administrative regions, infrastructure or cultural and environmental units were considered. The main objective was to establish equally sized basins throughout the country where relevant water matters of national and regional importance can be adequately addressed. It is imperative to bear in IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 82 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water mind that these water basins do not correspond with the political regions and as such may pose a major challenge in managing the water resources. Significant or total political agreement by the Regional Authorities will be essential to ensure that the recommended basin management structures will be successful.

Figure 6.5: Political Regions and Water Management Basins IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 83 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

6.7 DAMS / RESERVOIRS

6.7.1 Introduction There are many significant surface water storage dams in Namibia despite the high evaporation rates. Namibia's major dams are shown in Figure 6.6. They are generally for bulk water supply to municipalities and/or mines, but also for supply to irrigation projects. There are also countless small dams used by smaller communities and farmers for human consumption and/or stock watering. Dams within Namibia can be seen as fulfilling one or more of the following functions : • Bulk water supply to municipalities • Bulk water supply to mines • Bulk water supply to irrigation schemes • Part of a conjunctive use/transfer scheme • Storage prior to artificial recharge of groundwater • Stock-watering • Small-scale storage for human consumption • Recreation – water sports.

6.7.2 Namibia's Major Storage Dams Despite high rates of evaporation, surface water storage dams are an important water supply source. Most of the water supplied to Windhoek, Okahandja, Mariental, Keetmanshoop, Gobabis and Rehoboth is supplied from dams. The most serious environmental problem associated with dams is the reduced runoff downstream of the dam. In the case of the Oanob Dam, the design made allowances for ecological releases to alleviate this problem. Plans for large dams on the Ugab, Omaruru and Fish Rivers (and tributaries) are still tabled for discussion from time to time. Table 6.1 lists Namibia’s main storage dams. Table 6.1: Namibia's Main Storage Dams

Dam Name River Full Storage Dead Storage Purpose of Dam Capacity (Mm3) Volume (Mm3) Swakoppoort Swakop 63.489 1.431 Urban water supply, Dam Research Von Bach Dam Swakop 48.560 2.073 Urban water supply, Recreation, Research Omatako Dam Omatako 43.399 4.073 Urban water supply, Research Goreangab Dam Gammams 3.621 0.010 Recreation, Fishing, Education Avis Dam Avis 2.417 0.010 Recreation, Education IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 84 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

Dam Name River Full Storage Dead Storage Purpose of Dam Capacity (Mm3) Volume (Mm3) Otjivero Main White 9.808 0.066 Urban water supply Dam Nossob Otjivero Silt Dam White 7.795 0.096 Urban Water Supply Nossob Tilda Viljoen Dam Black 1.224 0.028 Urban water supply Nossob Daan Viljoen Dam Black 0.429 0.000 Urban water supply Nossob Hardap Dam Fish 294.593 4.299 Urban water supply, Recreation, Irrigation, Fishing, Stock Watering Naute Dam Löwen 83.520 1.320 Urban water supply, Irrigation, Recreation Oanob Dam Oanob 34.505 0.417 Urban water supply Recreation Dreihuk Dam Hom 15.493 0.206 Urban water supply Bondels Dam Bondels 1.103 0.007 Urban water supply Olushandja Dam Cuvelai and 42.331 4.000 Urban water supply, feeder canal Fishing, Balancing dam and, emergency water supply to, Oshakati Friedenau Dam Kuiseb 6.723 0.391 Recreation Omaruru Delta Omaruru 41.288 5.000 Recharge enhancement, Dam Urban water supply Omatjenne Dam Omatjenne 5.063 0.200 Urban water supply

For all these dams, with the exception of Omdel Dam (see Chapter 4), the largest "consumer" of water is evaporation. Evaporation losses increase in proportion to the extent of the area of the surface water of the dam. Some dams are sited in relatively deep valleys and do not lose nearly as much water to evaporation as those in wide shallow valleys. The dam with the worst characteristics is the Omatako Dam, and the best, Oanob Dam. If both these dams have the same quantity of water in them, the evaporative losses from the Omatako Dam will be nearly three times higher than from the Oanob Dam.

6.7.3 The Effect of Dams on the River Environment Two aspects merit discussion with respect to the effect of dams on the river environment. Firstly, the effect that large dams have on the river environment downstream of them, and secondly the effect that the numerous "farm" dams have on inflows into the large water supply dams.

Large Water Supply Dams Nambia's main water dams, although not large by international standards, are very large when compared to the mean annual runoffs of the rivers on which they are constructed. The Von Bach Dam, for example, with a capacity of 50 Mm3 is able to store approximately two IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 85 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water and a half times the mean annual runoff of the river at that point. It rarely spills because of its size, low inflow rates, and the fact that the water is utilised at a fairly rapid rate. Large dams have a major impact on flows further downstream. A study carried out on a proposed dam (Crerar 1984) on the Omaruru River at the point of maximum runoff, concluded the following (assuming a dam of capacity one and half times the mean annual runoff): • Mean Annual Runoff immediately downstream of the dam wall would be reduced from 40.48 Mm3/annum to 24.60 Mm3/annum. • The number of years with flow at a point immediately downstream of the dam would be reduced from almost once a year to once every three to four years. • This change in the flow regime clearly has major impacts on the downstream user. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 86 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water

Figure 6.6: Location of Main Storage Dams in Namibia

In order to avoid this problem, the idea of allowing a programme of compensatory releases was investigated as part of the design of the Oanob Dam, built in 1990. A study carried out by the Hydrology Division (Van Langenhove, 1989) concluded that under certain circumstances between one and five million cubic metres/annum could be released. A set of curves which combined long-term statistical and short-term operational considerations regarding safety of supply were derived which enable the decision-maker to decide whether there is enough water in the dam to make compensatory releases. In view of the fact that the assured yield of the Oanob Dam is only 4 Mm3 /annum it may seem strange that significant compensatory releases can be considered. It must be remembered, however, that most of the water which would be used in a compensatory IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 87 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water release programme would be lost to evaporation if not utilised, and only a small proportion towards increasing the safe yield.

Small Dams It has been suggested from time to time, that recent poor inflows to certain of the main water supply dams are in part related to a proliferation of farm dams in their catchments. These dams, although usually small, need to fill up before flow in the tributaries can reach the main stream and flow on towards the dam. A detailed study on the effect of farm dams in the Omatjenne Dam catchment area on the yield of the Omatjenne Dam (Mostert 1990) identified 64 farms dams in the 840 km2 Ugab catchment. The total capacity of these dams was estimated at 1.6 Mm3. This is sizeable when the volume is compared to the capacity of the Omatjenne Dam (5.063 Mm3), The study concluded that the yield at the 95% assurance level would be 0.675 Mm3/annum if there were no dams in the catchment, compared to the current assured yield of zero.

6.7.4 Dam Construction Policy For dams with a capacity larger than 20 000 m3, approval for construction has to be obtained from the Department of Water Affairs. Part of the approval process includes a technical assessment by the Hydrology Division. For dams smaller than 20 000 m3, a permit is required from the Department of Agriculture. For major dams, full environmental assessment studies are required. These have been carried out as a matter of course since 1988. A memorandum on the policy for the Approval of farm dams in the catchment of State dams was compiled by the Hydrology Division (Church 1990). The main conclusions were: • any investigation of the influence of farm dams on the runoff potential of State dams can only attempt to assess the effect of future dams as compared to the present state. Investigation into past effects of the gradual increase in farm dams is not possible for lack of information on previously constructed dams. • in principle, no further recommendations for the approval of farm dams larger than 20 000 m3 in State dam catchments should be forthcoming. • consideration be given to the introduction of measures in the new Water Act which would enable the state to control or enforce the removal of any unauthorised structure which has been built in a river or streambed in the catchment area of any State Water Scheme • investigations into the effect of farm dams in the catchment areas of State dams be extended to include all State Water Schemes and communal aquifers.

6.7.5 Conclusions Droughts and limited availability of both surface water and groundwater resources in the interior of Namibia are beyond the control of man. However this limited availability means that man must be in a position to manage and use the resource judiciously. Part of that management is the planning of how resources can best be used in a way that is IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 88 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Surface Water environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Planned management of sources and demand can only happen if the resources are known. In the case of surface water it is necessary to know the quantity of flow, the frequency or reliability of the flow, and the quality of the water. In view of the fact that a large percentage of the water supplied comes from surface water sources (dams on ephemeral rivers and perennial rivers), and that much of the supplied ground water is also derived from surface water, a good understanding of the surface water resources is important. Data relating to surface water resources are collected mainly by the Hydrology Division within the DWAF. Most data are collected from automatic recorders which have to be visited on a regular basis for servicing and station inspection. The collection, processing and analysis of these data is a time-consuming, demanding and a relatively expensive task, and requires that those involved are suitably trained, motivated and sufficient in numbers. Current manning levels within the Hydrology Division are unquestionably too low, especially within the technical field, for the work to be carried out effectively. It is important that decision-makers are reminded of the value of accurate and reliable hydrological data. Considering that the evaluation of surface (and alluvial groundwater) resources depends almost entirely on reliable runoff data, it is clear that it would be a grave error not to allocate sufficient resources to this fundamental aspect of water resource assessment and evaluation.

6.8 PRIORITIES FOR WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT The following points are suggested as priorities for management consideration : • Increased resources are required to ensure that the existing hydrological surface water network can be operated efficiently and that the capture of reliable data can continue. • More gauging stations and field visits during times of flood are required in the Cuvelai River Basin. This is an important system for which limited information is available. Efforts have already been made by the Hydrology Division to rectify this in recent years.

IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 89 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

7 STATUS OF BASELINE DATA FOR GROUNDWATER

7.1 INTRODUCTION Considering the hydrogeological environments in Namibia, the management of the groundwater resources can for practical purposes be grouped in two categories, namely the major or strategic aquifers, and the remainder. The strategic aquifers include the Karst-, Otjiwarongo-, Omdel-, Kuiseb-, Windhoek-, Stampriet- and Koichab aquifers, and they are all located in areas with high groundwater potential (See Figure 7.1). In terms of a long-term management plan, these seven aquifers must be treated with much more care because their deterioration and/or depletion will have devastating impacts on the national economy. The other aquifers, mostly fractured aquifers, are very important on a local scale for users such as the communal or commercial farmers and small towns or settlements. The deterioration of these aquifers could have major negative impacts on a local scale, but it will not necessarily harm the national economy, unless no economically feasible local remedy can be found. Remedies, such as the supply of piped water over long distances from other water sources are possible, but expensive. Such a water scheme can be much more easily implemented and executed than an augmentation scheme for a strategic aquifer.

Figure 7.1: Aquifers and Groundwater Potential IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 90 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

7.2 DATA SOURCES The information and data about groundwater sources were obtained from various reports on groundwater investigations, monitoring activities and research data that are available from the Department of Water Affairs, NamWater and Local Authorities operating water supply schemes, as well as the information used in the development of the existing water master plans. Long term data and information are readily available about groundwater resources and surface water resources, and to a lesser extent on the use of unconventional water resources such as the Windhoek water reclamation plant, water banking in the Windhoek Aquifer and the operation of the Omdel Dam artificial recharge enhancement project at the coast. Data directly related to groundwater – abstraction volumes, water quality and water level response to abstraction – are available to variable degrees, but the sufficiency and quality thereof can in certain areas and instances be questioned in terms of a national management strategy and plan. Almost all of this data are available at the Department of Water Affairs and NamWater. Some local authorities responsible for their own water supply do collect data, as do some mines using groundwater, but it is not readily available, nor is it sufficient to evaluate their groundwater abstraction and aquifer management accurately.

7.3 THE GEOHYDROLOGY DIVISION

7.3.1 Introduction The Geohydrology Division in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry is responsible for groundwater monitoring across the country and has a dedicated monitoring team that collects data at different frequencies. Monitoring point density is to a large degree directly related to the significance and importance of aquifers, resulting in quite high monitoring point densities in the major aquifers, but fairly low densities across the remainder of the country (See Figure 7.2). There are 771 monitoring points, but the distribution is hugely skewed because 566 (73.4%) monitoring points are in the water basins located in the Karst-, Omdel-, Kuiseb- and Otjiwarongo aquifers. The remaining 205 monitoring points are scattered across the rest of the country. This “biased monitoring” is further highlighted when considering that 397 (51.5%) of the total number of monitoring points are located in the basins hosting the Karst aquifers.

Monitoring Different types or methods of monitoring and frequency of monitoring is used. Manual, digital and analogue water level data are recorded nationwide by a dedicated monitoring team. Manual water level monitoring is done quarterly, digital monitoring is done daily, with downloads of the captured data done every four months, while the analogue charts are changed quarterly. The monitoring boreholes total 1180, and the monitoring at 479 is manual, 156 is analogue and 136 is digital. There are also 409 monitoring boreholes that have been abandoned due to a shortage of manpower and financial resources. Twelve analogue, one digital and IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 91 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater fourteen manual monitoring boreholes could not be plotted to produce Figure 7.2 due to missing information regarding the position of the borehole. The remaining 744 monitoring boreholes were plotted to show their location in relation to the water basins.

Figure 7.2: DWAF monitoring boreholes

7.3.2 Data quality The status of data gathering and the monitoring of existing water systems are fairly competent. Historically sufficient data is available and reliable information can be obtained to guide the planning of water infrastructure developments to meet future water demands. Geohydrology experiences problems with the quality of some of the digital data particularly those collected by Zeba loggers, and as a result embarked upon a replacement programme where it will be attempted to replace all the Zeba loggers. The analogue charts are no longer digitised, but manual water level readings are recorded when charts are changed. These manually recorded water levels are entered into spreadsheets, while the analogue charts are just piling up and is in effect not used. There is IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 92 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater also no attempt to correlate the manually recorded data with data points on the charts, although spot checks are sometimes made. Most of the data are readily available in electronic format, but it is generally not used for groundwater management purposes, unless there are specific projects running. The data are thus merely collected and stored at the Geohydrology Division where it can be accessed when required.

7.3.3 Coverage Water level monitoring is done quite widespread, resulting in fairly good coverage across the country. The major aquifers are all well covered, particularly when manual monitoring points are considered. In certain instances it is felt that the number of monitoring points can actually be decreased. Digital monitoring, especially in the major and most significant aquifers such as the Kuiseb, Omdel, Koichab and Windhoek are considered insufficient. Better digital monitoring coverage in remote and far-off areas could also be increased, which will result in a more cost effective monitoring network. The distribution of monitoring boreholes across the different water basins throughout Namibia is shown in Figures 7.3 and Figure 7.4

Figure 7.3: Distribution of monitoring boreholes

7.3.4 Improvement of Coverage Sub-standard digital loggers need to be replaced with reliable logging systems, while the analogue loggers are out-dated and also need to be replaced. The Geohydrology Division has already embarked on a programme to replace the unreliable Zeba loggers, while there is also a programme in place to replace all the analogue loggers with digital loggers. The latter will be done per area, and is subject to the availability of sufficient funding. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 93 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

Figure 7.4: Distribution and number of monitoring methods

7.3.5 Limitations The single biggest limitation is human capacity. Although the DWAF has a dedicated monitoring team to collect data, the vastness of the national monitoring network is simply too great to collect data as frequently as required to be more optimal. This limitation can be remedied by installing more digital logging devices, but this will have a significant financial implication. Digital logging will in any case require the physical capturing of the data at intervals tailored to the human capacity in the Department. Geohydrology has in certain cases reduced its monitoring frequency, changing monthly monitoring to quarterly monitoring. This was done due a combination of factors, such as human capacity, budgetary constraints and vehicle availability. Another limitation is an apparent “uncertainty” in terms of monitoring responsibility. The general perception is that Geohydrology is responsible for all monitoring of non-production boreholes, while service providers, in particular NamWater, only monitor groundwater response to abstraction in production boreholes. A sensible sharing of responsibilities can largely alleviate capacity pressures.

7.3.6 Conclusions about monitoring In conclusion, the water level monitoring done by Geohydrology is fairly comprehensive and is sufficient to support an IWRMP. However, areas where improvements in the current IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 94 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater system are needed include increased capacity to analyse and evaluate monitoring data and to improve the reliability of digital logging systems. Irrigation permit returns Certain areas (See Figure 7.5) have been declared “water control area” in order to manage, protect and control groundwater resources. The control areas are primarily where groundwater is used extensively for irrigation purposes and where artesian aquifers occur, such as the Karst aquifers and the Stampriet artesian basin. Groundwater users are obliged by permit conditions to monitor and record abstraction volumes and water levels and to submit the data to DWA on specified intervals. Quite a significant number of permit holders simply do not comply with the permit conditions and the currently the DWAF does not have the capacity to enforce the permit conditions. Enquiries at the DWAF for the groundwater abstraction data yielded mixed results. The DWAF can supply the allocated volumes for each groundwater abstraction application that was approved, but they have very little information about the actual abstraction volumes or water levels that had to be submitted by permit holders and could be used as monitoring data to support a long-term management plan. The exception is the Karst irrigation areas where there is a significant amount of data available. This may be a direct consequence of an operational management body, the Karst Water Management Body (KWMB), that is recognised by the MAWF and who is actively involved in managing the Karst groundwater resources. All applications for groundwater abstraction are submitted to the KWMB for consideration and making recommendations to the DWAF regarding the allocations.

7.3.7 Monitoring The permits issued to applicants specify the different types of monitoring data that must be collected, as well as the frequency at which it must be collected and submitted to the DWAF. The norm is that data must be collected monthly and submitted to DWA quarterly. It is also a standard condition that every borehole used for abstracting irrigation water must be equipped with a flow meter to measure the abstraction volumes accurately.

7.3.8 Data quality It is difficult to assess the quality of the data submitted by the permit holders to the DWAF, because no correlation is done by the DWAF. It is thus currently entirely up to the permit holder to submit accurate data. In terms of historical sufficiency, actual historic data is only available for the Karst area. The Geohydrology Division received abstraction data for only about 50% of permits issued during the period 2003 till 2007. There was, however, improved returns received during 2006 / 2007 and up to 60% of the permit holders submitted data (See Figure 7.6). No data is available for any of the other water control areas where irrigation is done. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 95 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

Figure 7.5: Water Control Areas

120 NO.OF PERMITS

RETURNS RECEIVED 98 100 RETURNS COMPLETE PERMITS INCREASED 86 83 PERMITS WITHDRAWN 78 78 80 PERMITS REDUCED

65

60 54

44 40 40 30 29 24 20 11 12 11 13 7 4 0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Figure 7.6: Irrigation Permit Statistics for the Karst Aquifers

For the Stampriet artesian aquifer, the best available data are from a hydrocensus done in 2001. Even this data needed to be re-assessed, and it was found for instance that calculating abstracted volumes based on crop type yielded more accurate data than those IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 96 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater volumes given by farmers during the hydrocensus. Data at DWAF are available in electronic format in spreadsheets, and it is currently used for permit management purposes.

7.3.9 Coverage It appears that significant illegal irrigation is done where there are no water control areas and where no permits were issued, such as at Hochfeld, Summerdown and Maltahohe. Subsequently no, or very limited, monitoring exists in certain areas where high groundwater abstraction takes place. Permits were mainly issued to irrigation farmers in the Karst- and Stampriet aquifers. Groundwater abstraction and water level response feedback are only received from the farmers in the Karst area and there is no feedback from the permit holders in the Stampriet Basin. It is evident from the data submitted to the DWAF on the one hand, and the lack of data not submitted on the other hand, that an operational and functional water management body consisting of the local irrigation farmers is some insurance that data will be collected and submitted. The only functional water management body currently is the KWMB, but enquiries were received by the DWAF from the Hochfeld Farmers’ Association and the Stampriet irrigation farmers regarding the establishment of their own water management bodies.

7.3.10 Improvement of Coverage Sufficient capacity to monitor permit obligations and to enforce remedial action lacks in the DWAF. The other major area for improvement is in advocating and facilitating the voluntary establishment of management bodies by all the irrigation areas in the country. Sufficient training of these local, self-regulating entities will be essential to make their work acceptable to the entire community as something that is being done in their best interest and to achieve the goals of proper groundwater management.

7.3.11 Limitations Once again, sufficient capacity within the relevant authorities to establish and train local farmers is a major limitation. Some farmers see the regulation of water resources as a means to restrict their economic activities rather than sincere efforts to manage the water resources in their own interest. The acceptance of aquifer management principles and cooperation by irrigation farmers to properly manage groundwater resources is, and will remain, a contentious issue for some time to come.

7.3.12 Conclusions Although the control of groundwater abstraction for irrigation is regulated by permit conditions, these obligations are in most cases not met by irrigation farmers. Quite a large number of irrigation farmers either do not even apply for abstraction permits or they simply do not collect and/or submit the prescribed data. The aims and objectives, in conjunction with the benefits of water resources management, must be clearly defined and promoted amongst irrigation farmers. Unless the cooperation of the irrigation farmers is obtained, efforts and attempts to monitor and manage groundwater resources will most likely be counter-effective because the farmers will just find ways to IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 97 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater either evade any responsibility placed on them, or to simply ignore any obligations they may have in terms of monitoring their water abstraction. An effective, operational management body comprising the groundwater users themselves is in itself the best way to involve all users and to ensure that the required data are collected and submitted to the relevant authorities, as is shown in the case of the Karst Water Management Body.

7.3.13 GROWAS Groundwater Database The need for a complete, functional database to manage groundwater related data was identified during the late nineties because all existing data were at the time stored in either excel spreadsheets with its limited capacity, referred to as the NCR database at the DWAF. The Geohydrology Divisions in the Department of Water Affairs and NamWater combined their efforts and appointed consultants to identify all the requirements for a new database, called GROWAS, and to construct and compile the database. The purpose of GROWAS was to manage all groundwater related data modularly. Each module was supposed to host data of a different component, such as the groundwater module, a water quality module and an infrastructure module. The groundwater module hosts geophysical data regarding borehole site selection, drilling and test pumping information as well as borehole data relating to water levels, depths, water strikes, abstraction rates, etc. The water quality module hosts all water quality data and the infrastructure module hosts data about the infrastructure installed in boreholes. GROWAS was supposed to be hosted on servers at both Geohydrology Divisions in the Department of Water Affairs and NamWater, with the servers communicating with one another. Updates of the databases at both divisions were to be done regularly, ensuring that fresh data are shared continuously. The base data in GROWAS were imported from the NCR database. The current status is that GROWAS is only partially functional at the DWAF, while it is not, and has never been functional at NamWater. An extract of the GROWAS database was acquired in January 2009. The database contains 53,579 borehole entries. It must be pointed out that the database also contains a vast amount of dug-well data of the north-central region, which has not been separated from the borehole data. A few boreholes plot outside the borders of Namibia and the location data must be incorrect. (See Figure 7.7 and Figure 7.8). IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 98 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

Figure 7.7: Distribution of boreholes

Figure 7.8: Boreholes with data in the GROWAS database IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 99 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

7.4 DIRECTORATE RURAL WATER SUPPLY

7.4.1 Introduction A significant number of production boreholes are in operation to supply in the water demand of the rural communities in Namibia. Considering the distribution of the boreholes, it is evident that they cover significant areas where neither the DWAF nor NamWater currently have proper monitoring networks (See Figure 7.9).

Figure 7.9: Rural Water Supply boreholes

The Directorate: Rural Water Supply (DRWS) in the DWAF has their own database, the Rural Water Information System (RUWIS). Although this database contains data pertaining mainly to water point installation infrastructure and institutional arrangements (water point committees), it also contains data on borehole localities and designs. The latter are a duplication of the data contained in GROWAS. RUWIS uses a water point identifier field unique to the requirements of the DRWS, referring to the region, area and a chronological water point numbering, eg. OM/AM/001 (Omaheke Region, Aminuis area, water point number 001). There is no link with any water point identifier used in GROWAS, such as a WW-number. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 100 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

7.4.2 Monitoring The DRWS does not monitor any groundwater related parameters.

7.4.3 Data quality No groundwater related data is available that can support a management plan.

7.4.4 Current coverage In terms of monitoring groundwater parameters, there is currently no coverage at all.

7.4.5 Improvement of Coverage Groundwater monitoring must be improved across the country.

7.4.6 Limitations Human capacity remains a major limitation, although there is also a lack of suitable equipment to measure water levels, abstraction rates and water quality. The RUWIS and GROWAS databases are designed in such a way that they cannot communicate with one another. There is furthermore an obvious limitation in that water points cannot be cross-referenced due to the non-use of a unique water point identifier system such as a WW-number.

7.4.7 Conclusions Although DRWS has a database, it is used primarily to keep track of water point installation infrastructure and institutional arrangements regarding water point committees. They do not monitor or capture any groundwater related data like water levels, abstraction rates or water quality. As a result, there is no RWS groundwater monitoring network in place, with no monitoring coverage at all.

7.5 NAMWATER The behaviour of all the major aquifers, i.e. their responses to bulk groundwater abstraction, operated by NamWater is monitored on a continuous basis and this information is readily available. This can be used when the long-term sustainable yield of the groundwater sources and the future augmentation of those resources have to be considered in a management plan. The same applies to surface water sources, such as the ten large dams in operation in Namibia. Namibia has also been participating with its co-riparian neighbouring states on the management of the internationally shared border rivers of Namibia and the country has access to those water resources to augment the water resources in the interior of Namibia should it become necessary to do so.

7.5.1 Monitoring of Water Production NamWater manages its water supply schemes in six water supply areas. Although some water supply management can be done digitally via telemetry, groundwater monitoring is done manually in each of the water supply areas. NamWater monitors the abstraction of IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 101 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater groundwater from some 500 production boreholes at 97 water supply schemes distributed throughout Namibia. Collection of data is done by the area offices and a person travels on a monthly basis to each water scheme in the area to measure water levels, and to record production or abstraction figures. NamWater manually collects data on a monthly basis, but certain schemes are equipped with telemetry, providing real time as well as historic data. This telemetry functionality is currently used by Area Managers, mainly as a water supply management tool, and not for monitoring purposes. The following data is collected: • Production or abstraction. • Production hours. • Rest- and pump water levels. NamWater is currently in the process of compiling master water plans for each water supply area. All components of the existing water supply schemes will be evaluated, to identify current and potential future inadequacies to meet the anticipated water demand.

7.5.2 Data quality The quality of the data available at NamWater varies from poor to excellent. Often parameters are not measured, either in the short term or over extended periods of time, or there is no consistency in a specific parameter – most notably pump water level and hourly abstraction rates which are calculated from production and production hour measurements. However, excellent quality data are also collected (See Figure 7.10).

Figure 7.10: NamWater monitoring data of groundwater abstraction IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 102 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

Since 1986 data is electronically available for most schemes, and older data is available in hard copy for some schemes only. Enough data is thus available to support a management plan. Data are collected and entered into excel spreadsheets, known as monthly production returns, at Area level and forwarded to offices of the Geohydrology Division located in Windhoek. This information is then re-typed into excel spreadsheets and used to compile production histograms for each production borehole. The monthly production data are used for internal groundwater and borehole management purposes and to act as early warning for deteriorating borehole conditions, as well as for aquifer depletion. Production data are also used to compile annual scheme assessments which are of greater management value in that groundwater response is evaluated in terms of individual borehole performance, as well as in scheme context over a 12-month period. Unfortunately these annual scheme assessments have not been implemented as standard management tools, but are rather done by personal preferences of geohydrologists.

7.5.3 Current coverage NamWater water supply schemes are distributed across Namibia (See Figure 7.11) and give a good coverage for monitoring bulk groundwater abstraction, but it also reflects the regional condition of the groundwater sources fairly well.

Figure 7.11: NamWater groundwater supply scheme distribution IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 103 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

Water schemes can obviously only exist when the capital and operating cost can be recovered through the water tariff that the consumers have to pay and any extension of the current coverage will to a large degree depend on either the improved financial status of people, or government subsidisation or cross-subsidisation between water supply schemes, i.e. to establish an affordable water tariff. Extension of NamWater’s abstraction monitoring is directly related to the extension of the client base, and as a result the network is close to its upper ceiling, as the actual extension of the client base is limited. The accuracy of the collected data could, however, be improved. The submission of data to the DWAF is also not done regularly and must be improved on.

7.5.4 Limitations NamWater is extremely limited in the availability of human capacity – both in terms of the number of professional geohydrological staff, but also in terms of knowledge when operational personnel collecting data is concerned. Their capacity needs to be increased if more accurate data and more frequent submissions to DWA of analysed data are required. Currently, each geohydrologist has to manage on average about 25 water supply schemes and 125 boreholes in addition to any other task.

7.5.5 Conclusions Although the data collected by NamWater differ from other monitoring data in that it is orientated towards monitoring groundwater abstraction and aquifer response to abstraction, it compliments and supports the DWA monitoring networks very well and adds significant value to the national monitoring network. Apart from isolated irrigation schemes, it is not envisaged that groundwater abstraction from fractured, non-strategic aquifers will at any one locality exceed the bulk abstraction of groundwater by NamWater for supply purposes. NamWater schemes should thus in most instances reflect the worst-case scenarios relating to groundwater response and behaviour, and as such lend themselves ideally as regional-type monitoring areas to assess the regional groundwater status.

7.6 LOCAL AUTHORITIES Some local authorities either do their own water supply entirely, or supply water in combination with water supplied by NamWater. The local authorities doing their entire water supply on their own are the Municipalities of Tsumeb, Grootfontein, Outjo and Omaruru, while the Municipalities of Okahandja, Usakos and Windhoek supply own water in addition to NamWater supplies (See Figure 7.12). Currently the municipalities of Omaruru, Usakos and Outjo record abstraction volumes only, but they do not record water levels or groundwater quality. Data is stored in hard copy format, and although it is available, getting access to the date is actually quite difficult. The municipalities of Windhoek, Tsumeb and Grootfontein are obliged to have groundwater abstraction permits. Monitoring of abstraction volumes and water levels are prescribed in terms of their abstraction permit conditions. This data must be collected monthly and IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 104 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater submitted to DWAF quarterly, but this is not done regularly and the information is not readily available.

Figure 7.12: Local Authorities with Their Own Water Supply

The municipality of Okahandja apparently records abstraction volumes only, but they could not supply the data when requested. The records of the City of Windhoek show that the water abstracted from the Windhoek aquifer averaged 1.68 Mm3/a since 2000, but it ranged between 0.6 Mm3 in 2001 and 3 Mm3 in 2003. The City has a well-maintained and updated database on abstraction volumes and water levels. The data is collected monthly and submitted to the DWAF quarterly. The data is available at the City of Windhoek in electronic format. It is obvious that most of the local authorities who do their own water supply do not collect all the relevant hydrogeological data, nor do they comply with abstraction permit requirements.

7.7 THE TOURISM INDUSTRY The tourism industry does not have any records whatsoever pertaining to their water demand and / or abstraction. Neither can they supply accurate information about the distribution of tourists in the urban and rural tourist establishments in Namibia. Hence there IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 105 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater are no means of accurately discriminating between the water supply to these tourist establishments based on either municipal water supply or own groundwater supply.

7.8 MINES Quite a number of mines use groundwater in their operations, and most of them, if not all, are required to collect and submit groundwater monitoring data to the DWAF in terms of the conditions prescribed in their waste water disposal permits. Enquiries at the DWAF, however, revealed that very little groundwater related data from mines is actually available. Where data is available, it appears that some form of confidentiality regarding the data is maintained. Although monitoring data from mines is collected, it is not readily available.

7.9 GROUNDWATER QUALITY MONITORING

7.9.1 Introduction When quantifying aquifer integrity and availability, groundwater quality is as important, if not more, than groundwater reserves. Quite often groundwater is available in sufficient quantities, but is unsuitable for many purposes due to inferior quality. Water quality is furthermore one the first indicators of deteriorating aquifer integrity and the collection of water quality data is therefore critical in groundwater management. Groundwater quality very often shows seasonal trends and in order to establish baseline data against which to benchmark quality changes, time-series data over a number of seasons are required.

7.9.2 Monitoring The Geohydrology Division at the DWAF recently embarked on a programme to collect water samples for isotope analyses, but they do not have a programme for sampling groundwater for standard chemical analyses. The quality of the water in newly drilled boreholes supervised by Geohydrology on behalf of the Directorate for Rural Water Supply, is sampled as a standard procedure and chemically analysed, but there is no subsequent follow-up done. NamWater used to sample their production boreholes annually, but they no longer sample borehole water as a routine management option (reservoir or end-product water is mostly sampled for the last number of years). As a result, historical chemical analyses are thus available for most of their production boreholes up to a certain point in time, while recently drilled boreholes have once-off analyses from samples taken when the boreholes were drilled. Apart from the City of Windhoek, who samples production boreholes on a monthly basis in such a sequence that each production borehole is sampled at least quarterly, the local authorities having their own water supply boreholes, do not take water samples for chemical analysis and therefore no historical data is available.

7.9.3 Data quality Groundwater quality data is available for most of the country. Sufficient data exists that allowed the compilation of various water quality maps, of which the most significant are the 1:1 000 000 map series compiled by the CSIR, mapping sulphate, nitrate, fluoride and total IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 106 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater dissolved solids (TDS). This information was also used in the 2001 Hydrogeological Map of Namibia. Data quality is often questionable because the sampling methods are not always correct. Furthermore, a mixed water samples is often taken when a borehole intersects different aquifers and only one sample is taken when the borehole is completed instead of taking a water sample when each aquifer is struck. The next two maps plotting TDS clearly show the results, and it is obvious that a total misleading perception regarding the true water quality can be created, with dire consequences in terms of planning and management. Figure 7.13 shows the water quality map produced for the 2001 Hydrogeological Map, using filtered data, while Figure 7.14 shows a map compiled using unfiltered 2005 data as downloaded from the GROWAS database.

Figure 7.13: Water Quality Map Using Filtered Data

IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 107 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

Figure 7.14: Water quality map compiled using unfiltered data

The data sets yield quite different maps, but it allows for the delineation of saline groundwater areas, based on TDS (See Figure 7.15) It is very important to qualify and clearly state what is exactly presented on such maps, as it may be misleading to planners. The lack of time-series water quality data are a major concern. Although a significant quantity of once-off water quality analyses are available for a very large number of boreholes throughout Namibia, no trends and/or changes in water quality can be deducted from these data. In terms of supporting planning (of future developments) and management of groundwater resources, the water quality of specific groundwater resources must be known over time. For example, NamWater no longer sample groundwater at boreholes, but they do sample (treated) end-product water. Because of the treatment, biological pollution is almost never observed in samples although the groundwater may be polluted. Such a case was observed at the Osire water supply scheme where the groundwater was highly polluted by sewage, but it was not observed in the end-product water. Chemical analyses of borehole water would have indicated elevated levels in for instance the nitrate concentration, which would have triggered a series of actions to determine the source of pollution, remedy the problem and remove the source of pollution. When time-series quality data on groundwater is not available, the presence of groundwater pollution is only revealed by change. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 108 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

Figure 7.15: Delineation of saline groundwater areas

The availability of sufficient and continuous, representative water quality data in irrigation areas is also a cause for concern. Irrigation often requires the use of fertilisers, with subsequent potential pollution risks. Similarly, local authorities who supply their own water must be obliged to conduct frequent water quality monitoring of all the groundwater resources exploited by them.

7.9.4 Current coverage Although sufficient data are available that resulted in the compilation of various water quality maps, most of it is once-off data. DWA has embarked on a programme to collect water quality samples on a routine basis throughout Namibia which will improve our knowledge and understanding of water quality issues immensely.

7.9.5 Aspects where coverage needs to be improved One of the major concerns is the lack of water quality sampling by NamWater. They should establish and maintain a routine sampling programme whereby each and every production IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 109 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater borehole supplying groundwater to a bulk water supply scheme is sampled at the very least once a year. The other major concerns are the lack of sampling in irrigation areas, especially where fertilisers are being used, and sampling by local authorities. Water quality monitoring should preferably be done seasonally, with water quality samples taken before and after rainy seasons.

7.9.6 Limitations Capacity remains of major stumbling block, but the availability of sufficient equipment and finances may also cause problems to the logistics of water quality sampling and analyses.

7.9.7 Conclusions The use of single chemical determinants or water quality maps to guide planning can be very misleading and often do not portray the whole picture. Although TDS for example is a very useful indicator of overall groundwater quality, certain chemical determinants that do not contribute significantly to TDS and thus do not come to its right in a TDS map (such as fluoride or nitrate), may still render low TDS groundwater unsuitable. The use of chemical data to delineate unfit groundwaters is further complicated because water that is for example unsuitable for bulk supply to large communities, may still be suitable to supply single households. Whenever groundwater quality maps are used for planning purposes, it must be known what it portrays and what the consequences could be if other chemical determinants are not considered. The lack of time-series water quality data in support of planning and development is a cause for concern, but this will in the long term be negated to some extent by the planned water quality programme embarked on by DWA. NamWater and local authorities must however improve on their water quality monitoring.

7.9.8 Groundwater recharge Groundwater recharge, and the data required to quantify it, can be classified in two groups, namely natural recharge and artificial recharge. Natural recharge takes place through percolation during and after precipitation events as well as by means of subsurface flow between different groundwater systems or in alluvial beds or aquifers. Artificial recharge is induced recharge by and through man-made structures when surplus surface water is available. Apart from site-specific recharge studies, data to estimate natural recharge are not readily available. Based on water level reaction to rainfall or run-off events, project related conclusions have often been made on natural recharge, but scientific confirmation thereof is lacking. In other cases groundwater recharge has been “calculated” based on groundwater flow models, where water levels were modelled to simulate the actual water level behaviour. It is a fact that recharge varies significantly depending on the geological, hydrogeological and topographical environments, as well as on the climatological and vegetation conditions. In order to establish recharge estimates to an acceptable level of accuracy, these different components controlling groundwater recharge must be well-understood. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 110 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

Currently, an average recharge figure of 1% of rainfall is used. This figure is perceived to be the national average recharge and is used in water balance calculations in the hydrological cycle. Similarly a figure of 1% is used mostly for alluvial aquifers, based on a study conducted in the Khan River alluvials at Usakos. It goes without saying that the error margin by using these “standard figures” could be very high when applied in different environments and under different conditions. Sufficient and relevant historical meteorological data are of utmost importance in any recharge quantification exercise. The relevant data include, amongst others, actual rainfall figures, rainfall intensity and rainfall duration. Different environments will for example recharge differently to the exact same rainfall event: in open karst features, high intensity rainfall will result in little run-off and high recharge rates, while the same rainfall event will result in high surface run-off and little recharge in certain alluvial environments. Although quite a lot of actual rainfall data are available, very little data are available on rainfall intensity and duration, particularly and notably in the strategic aquifers. Data to accurately estimate artificial recharge are sufficiently available where this type of recharge occurs. Currently there are only two major artificial recharge areas, namely the Omdel water supply scheme in the lower Omaruru River and the Windhoek aquifer. For both these aquifers, a lot of exploration and experimental data are available which are used to guide and direct artificial recharge / infiltration, as well as to predict aquifer response to recharge events, but actual recharge events with its corresponding data are still limited. Since scheme completion in the early 1990’s, only three significant recharge events took place in the Omdel aquifer, while operational water banking has yet to be done in the Windhoek Aquifer. As more operational data become available, the accuracy of artificial recharge figures will improve. In conclusion it can be stated that data to estimate natural recharge are insufficient and most likely inaccurate. Aquifer specific projects are required to identify what data are needed to accurately estimate natural recharge, and then the necessary infrastructure must be established to capture that data. This must be done at least for the strategic aquifers. Although limited operational data are available on the artificial recharge schemes, the exploration and experimental data are sufficient to operate these schemes to its potential. With time, operational data will improve the operation of these schemes.

7.10 SUMMARY In assessing the current status of baseline monitoring data and its suitability to support a long-term management plan, it is relevant to analyse the current situation for each sector/role player in isolation, but it is equally important to assess the situation holistically and in context of one national planning strategy. If one thus combine the existing monitoring networks that are operational and where relevant expertise are available to evaluate the data, i.e. the DWAF and NamWater networks, good and reliable data are available that covers most of the country (See Figure 7.16), and that can support a long-term management plan. Should the co-operation of local authorities, mines and irrigation farmers be obtained and they submit the required monitoring data as they are obliged to by permit conditions, the national monitoring network can be extended to such a degree that future expenditure can IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 111 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater be directed towards improved, more reliable monitoring equipment rather than establishing new monitoring points.

Figure 7.16: Existing monitoring networks and major aquifers

When the major (strategic) aquifers are considered, it is clear that they are well-covered with monitoring points. In terms of managing the groundwater resources of these strategic aquifers, it is obvious that the lack of capacity to properly analyse and evaluate the collected data is of significantly greater concern than the data itself. Should the co-operation of local authorities, mines and irrigation farmers be obtained and they submit the required monitoring data as they are obliged to by permit conditions, the national monitoring network can be extended to such a degree that future expenditure can be directed towards improved, more reliable monitoring equipment rather than establishing new monitoring points. When the major (strategic) aquifers are considered, it is clear that they are well-covered with monitoring points. In terms of managing the groundwater resources of these strategic aquifers, it is obvious that the lack of capacity to properly analyse and evaluate the collected data is of significantly greater concern than the data itself. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 112 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

7.11 CONCLUSIONS It can be concluded that the most acute limitation throughout the management hydrogeological data is the lack of sufficient human capacity, both in numbers and experience, to analyse and evaluate monitoring data. Water level monitoring done by Geohydrology is fairly comprehensive and is sufficient to support an IWRMP, although some digital logging systems are unreliability. Although the control of groundwater abstraction for irrigation is regulated by permit conditions, the obligations to submit abstraction data are in most cases not met by irrigation farmers. Unless the cooperation of the irrigation farmers is obtained, efforts and attempts to monitor and manage groundwater resources will most likely be counter-effective. An effective, operational management body comprising the groundwater users themselves is in itself the best way to involve all users and to ensure that the required data are collected and submitted to the relevant authorities. The DRWS database is used primarily to keep track of water point installation infrastructure and institutional arrangements regarding water point committees. Data collected by NamWater differ from other monitoring data in that it is orientated towards monitoring groundwater abstraction and aquifer response to abstraction, but it compliments and supports the DWA monitoring networks very well and adds significant value to the national monitoring network. NamWater schemes should in most instances reflect the worst- case scenarios relating to groundwater response and behaviour and as such lend themselves ideally as regional - type monitoring areas to assess the regional groundwater status. Most of the local authorities who do their own water supply do not collect all the relevant hydrogeological data, nor do they comply with abstraction permit requirements. The tourism industry does not have any records whatsoever pertaining to their water demand and/or abstraction. Neither can they supply accurate information about the distribution of tourists in the urban and rural tourist establishments in Namibia. A significant quantity of once-off water quality analyses is available for a very large number of boreholes throughout Namibia but there is a lack of time-series water quality data. The unavailability of sufficient and continuous, representative water quality data is also a cause for concern in irrigation areas, local authorities who supply their own water, as well as lodges. Whenever groundwater quality maps are used for planning purposes, it must be known what it portrays and what the consequences could be if other chemical determinants are not considered. Data to estimate natural recharge are insufficient and most likely inaccurate.

7.12 RECOMMENDATIONS i) The human capacity to manage groundwater resources must be increased significantly. ii) Sub-standard digital logging systems need to be replaced with more reliable equipment. IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA 113 Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Status of Baseline Data for Groundwater

iii) The voluntary establishment of management bodies in all the large groundwater abstraction areas in the country must be advocated and facilitated. Sufficient training of these local, self-regulating entities will be essential to make their work acceptable to the entire community. iv) Rural groundwater monitoring must be improved across the country. v) The accuracy of the production data collected by NamWater must be improved, and submission of data to the DWAF must be done regularly. vi) NamWater must establish and maintain a routine groundwater sampling programme whereby each and every production borehole supplying groundwater to a bulk water supply scheme is sampled, and the water quality analysed, at the very least once a year. vii) Water quality monitoring must preferably be done seasonally in irrigation areas, with water quality samples taken before and after rainy seasons. viii) Water quality monitoring must be done by local authorities and tourism ventures such as lodges. ix) Aquifer specific investigations must be conducted (at least for the strategic aquifers) to identify what data are needed to accurately estimate natural recharge, and then the necessary infrastructure must be established to capture that data.

114 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

8 STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

8.1 INTRODUCTION This is based on the understanding that absence of participation by stakeholders makes the entire process of IWRM invalid and difficult to implement. This assessment focuses on the processes used to date to gain stakeholder engagement and participation through the water sector planning process and the MAWF Strategic Plan (MAWRD 2007) and particularly through the establishment of basin management committees and through the processes undertaken by DRWS such as the formation of water user associations and local water user associations. The approach to stakeholder engagement is based on the Dublin Principles and the various government policies, including the 2008 Water Supply and Sanitation Policy that emphasise participation on all levels. The roles of women and the youth are specifically discussed. The existing hypothesis that there are more women represented at the lower levels of stakeholder engagement and participation while men dominate at the higher levels of decision making will be investigated. Awareness creation efforts will be analysed separately from stakeholder engagement and participation. The types of awareness campaigns to generate broad awareness amongst water users and the general public will be cursorily analysed. Although actual assessment of the success of these campaigns will be hard to evaluate, observation of relevant actions, e.g. tolerance of leaky pipes, will be observed. Previous experience indicates that everyone knows that ‘water is life’ but small surveys have been undertaken, to gain an understanding of what this means to individuals pursuing various livelihoods. This section therefore provides a review and assessment of stakeholder awareness, participation and engagement with particular attention paid to women and youth. This is based on the understanding that absence of participation by stakeholders makes the entire process of IWRM invalid and difficult to implement Six key terms are defined as indicated in Table 8.1 on the next page and will be so used throughout this section.

8.2 STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION This review and assessment refers particularly to the involvement of and contribution by men, women and youth (youth ranging up to 35 years in the Namibian context), as they are represented in all stakeholder groups (e.g. agriculture, forestry, urban dwellers), in terms of awareness, participation and engagement related to water supply, management, planning and strategy development. The analysis will be set against the question of not only what is the current situation concerning engagement, participation and awareness but what are the consequences of no awareness, no participation or no engagement. As with education and democracy, all of these elements take time and effort to take root. Facilitating this effort is time consuming and expensive, but omitting it from consideration is even more time consuming and expensive.

115 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

Table 8.1: Terminology

Term Understanding for IWRM Plan

Stakeholder In its simplest form: all persons, men, women and youth, interested in and affected by water. This includes all decision makers, managers and users of water. The term may be modified, e.g. ‘community stakeholders’ to refer to a specific group of stakeholders. The term may also refer to the environment, the economy, future generations and other elements as stakeholders requiring consideration.

Youth The term refers to children and adolescents before full manhood or womanhood. Although not a strict definition, youth are people still of school or university-going age, not older than 25 years and not in decision-making positions (maximum of 35 years in Namibian context).

Awareness Refers to knowing about something. Awareness is a first, preliminary component of capacity, along with knowledge, skills and attitudes, required for participation or engagement. People can be aware of something without having the skills or appropriate attitudes to do something about it, e.g. know there is a water leak but not be able to repair the pipe or not know whom to notify or not take the time to notify authorities if they are known. Awareness creation in Namibia has led to everybody being aware that ‘water is life’ but many people do not know how to take this awareness further to manage or use water appropriately for their own and society’s benefit.

Participation Refers to having a share in something. In terms of ‘stakeholder participation’ it usually means taking part in an activity such as digging a trench for a pipeline as a member of a community, for one or several days, or attending a meeting but not assuming any responsibility. People can participate at varying levels without being committed or ‘engaged’.

Involvement Refers to being included in something. In terms of ‘stakeholder involvement’ it often refers to people being included or simply co-opted, e.g. in the use of a water point, but not necessarily by own choice. In common usage it tends to fall between participation and engagement.

Engagement Refers to an individual’s promise or agreement to do something and willingness to make decisions. In terms of ‘stakeholder engagement’, it refers to stakeholders taking up a role in some aspect of water management or use. It is often used to refer to voluntary actions such as helping to establish, manage and maintain a water point or not wasting or contaminating water in the home. It also refers to the dedication of a professional water manager at any level to his/her designated tasks.

The following table (designed by Dr W Holch, pers. comm.) sets out the approach undertaken. The analysis is based on the experience of the Directorate of Rural Water Supply from their community based management, the experiences from the processes related to the various basin management committees/ water management areas, as well as the research and personal experiences of the compilers of this review and assessment of stakeholder involvement in IWRM. Questions concerning the understanding of the three groups being reviewed by the three groups of people identified are discussed in Table 8.2 below.

116 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

Table 8.2: Understanding Involvement

Item Awareness Participation Engagement

Men What do men know about Are men participating in Are men aware of the potential of men, women water management and participating in or engaged in and youth to support IWRM use? What are they water management and use? or WDM matters? What do actively contributing? Do On what level are they they know about the policy they allow/ encourage engaged? What are they and legal landscape? women and youth to actively contributing? Do they contribute (participate or include women and youth or be engaged)? make isolated decisions?

Women What do they know about Are women participating Are women engaged in water the potential of men, women in water management and management and use? On and youth to support IWRM use? What are they what level are they engaged? or WDM matters? What do actively contributing? Do What are they actively they know about the policy they allow/ encourage contributing? Do they include and legal landscape? men and youth to men and youth or make contribute (participate or isolated decisions? be engaged)?

Youth What do they know about Are youth participating in Are youth engaged in water the potential of men, women water management and management and use? On and youth to support IWRM use? What are they or what level are they engaged? or WDM matters? What do could they contribute? Do What are they or could they they know about the policy they share with/ contribute? Do they include and legal landscape? encourage men and men and women or make women to contribute isolated decisions? (participate or be engaged)?

8.2.1 Community Based Water Management Awareness, participation and engagement are key issues at all levels, according to the Dublin Principles and various government policies for the community based management approach of DRWS in rural communal areas to attain the Millennium Development Goals and Namibia’s Vision 2030. The Mission of the Directorate (DRWS, 2004) states that: • By 2007 80% of the rural population will receive water from improved systems and that all water points existing will be managed by the communities themselves. • The Directorate itself will consist of in-house specialists who will provide advice and services on policy-making, planning and information management. • The Regional support units will provide project management services, policy advice, training services, management of inter-regional pipelines and will advise and support in water supply operations. This mission requires a high level of engagement from water managers and users; it does not make any specific reference to women or youth although they are purposefully involved. To attain this level of engagement, capacity building, including skills, attitudes and 117 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

understanding at community as well as Directorate levels, was given great attention. With communities, the focus was on participation and awareness as well as the goal of active engagement. It is clear from the Vision and the Mission of the DRWS that absence of engagement, by communities as well as national and regional staff, would lead to complete failure of the Community Based Management Programme. Stepping further into the implementation, it is clear that participation of communities, including individuals and their leaders, based on awareness is also an essential component averting failure of the programme. Without explicitly stating in their vision or mission that awareness, participation and engagement of women and youth is essential, the programme nevertheless targeted men, women and youth in all their activities. The key concepts of the programme were described as community based management, that is operation and maintenance of water points, partnership between government and rural communities, shared responsibilities amongst all stakeholders and decentralisation of decision making and management functions to the lowest level possible. The framework of legislation, policies and strategies for rural water supply includes: the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia, the Water Act No 54 of 1956 soon to be replaced by the Water Resources Management Act No 24 of 2004, the National Water Policy of 2000, and the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Policy (WASP) of 1993 revised in 2008. Only the National Water Policy makes special reference to women or youth. The others make frequent reference to equitable improvement of services which is intended to refer to men, women and youth. The WASP 1993, upon which community based management was based, makes frequent reference, however, to ‘combined efforts of the government and the beneficiaries’, ‘community involvement’, ‘community participation’ and ‘acceptance of mutual responsibility’. Communities should have the right to determine solutions and service levels while at the same time contributing to cost of services. The environment, economic development and public health are also identified as objectives and hence as stakeholders. In terms of responsibilities, it is ‘recommended that community ownership and management of facilities should be adopted in communal rural areas’ and stated that the ‘government should act as a facilitator’. All of these terms and references indicate the requirement for taking responsibility, that is, for strong engagement and not just simple participation and awareness. By 1997, Cabinet endorsed a number of statements from the Water Supply and Sanitation Coordination Committee which specifically stated ‘women are included as full partners in the planning, developing, management and decision making of rural water supply.’ Vision 2030 targeted implementation of a gender policy with respect to the water sector by 2006. By the end of 2003, the female staff at head office of DRWS stood at 27% while it was 21% in the regions. The figures for management level, however, were much lower. As recorded in 2003, at community level the situation was much better. Female representation on the pipeline schemes was well above average. More than 60% of the committee members on Water Point Committees and Local Water Committees were females. The chairperson was female in approximately 50% of the cases. Water Point Committees employ females as caretakers 30% of the time and Local Water Committees employ females as 118 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

caretakers 15% of the time. Female participation in the Water Point Committees averages between 40% and 50% in cases where the water points are served by boreholes. By the beginning of 2009, the female staff at head office of DRWS had increased slightly to 31% while it was 24% in the regions. Similar figures from the other Directorates in DWAF were not available. Although the DRWS is strongly focusing on equity in the provision of water services and is striving for equity in service delivery, even this well-intentioned directorate is finding it difficult to meet their objectives. Explanations could range from limited technical capacity to prevailing cultural attitudes.

8.2.2 Basin Management Committees Basin Management Committees (BMC) are a second institutional innovation, also derived from the Dublin Principles, that provide the option to promote involvement of men, women and youth. In terms of the Water Resources Management Act of 2004, a BMC has the following responsibilities: • To promote community participation in the protection, use, development, conservation, management and control of water resources in its water management area through education and other appropriate activities; [potential for gender initiatives] • To prepare a water resources plan for the basin which must be submitted to the Minister for consideration when developing the National Water Master Plan; [gender neutral] • To make recommendations regarding the issuance or cancellation of a licence and permits under the Water Act; [gender neutral] • To promote community self-reliance, including the recovery of costs for the operation and maintenance of waterworks; [potential for gender initiatives] • To facilitate the establishment of an operational system and maintenance system of waterworks and the accessing of technical support for water management institutions within its water management area; [gender neutral] • To monitor and report on the effectiveness of policies and action in achieving sustainable management of water resources in its water management area; [gender neutral] • To collect, manage and share such data as is necessary to properly manage the basin in co-ordination with the Water Resources Management Agency when established, and/or with the Ministry of Agriculture Water and Forestry in the interim; [gender neutral] • To develop a water research agenda, together with the Water Resources Management Agency, appropriate to the needs of water management institutions and water users within its water management area; [potential for gender initiatives] 119 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

• To help resolve conflicts relating to water resources in its water management area; [gender neutral] and • To perform additional functions as the Minister may direct in terms of the Water Act. [gender neutral] Examining the eleven responsibilities ascribed to a BMC, four provide strong potential for gender initiatives. The others are gender neutral, but could be used to promote gender equity. Five Water Management Area Committees or Basin Management Committees have been established. Most of the committees are elected from amongst the Basin Management Forum which is composed of all interested parties. Committee members are nominated by their institutions, based on the experience and interest of the individuals involved (Aune Amwaama, pers. comm.). While the criteria are experience and interest, this tends to preclude women and youth although they are represented in the committees established to date. Moreover, they are usually not established in the positions of power that would recommend their nominations. Table 8.3 provides an overview of how gender representative the members of the committees are. Table 8.3: Gender Representation in Committees

Basin Men Women Youth Comments

Iishana sub-Basin Management Committee 7 2 0 Chair- a man Karst Water Management Body 12 1 0 Chair - a man Kuiseb Basin Management Committee 8 2 1 Chair – a man Okavango Basin Management Committee 14 3 0 Chair – a woman Omaruru Basin Management Committee 14 3 0 Chair – a man Total 55 10 1 4 of 5 are men Percentage 83% 22% 3% 22% women

Of the five existing committees, all are dominated by male members. The Karst Water Management Body is the oldest committee, and was a member-driven initiative which is most focused on the livelihoods of its members. The other four enjoyed donor funding to become established (Kuiseb and Omaruru) or are still so supported (Iishana and Okavango). Two other basins in the process of considering basin management, the Ugab and the Fish River basins, are also dominated by men. Yet another recent initiative is the implementation of community-based groundwater monitoring. This has been taken up in two areas with already established Forums for Integrated Resource Management. One initiative is headed by a male and one by a female both of whom were already involved in community-based organisation. Although the Namibian Water Policy and the Water Resources Management Act of 2004 provide some potential for gender equity, inter alia in participation and engagement of men, women and youth in the institutional development of basin committees and management of 120 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

the basins, this potential has not yet been fully realised and will require more direct actions and perhaps directives from government level.

8.2.3 Overview of engagement of women and youth Two major approaches with the potential of encouraging participation and engagement of women and youth are ongoing in Namibia. The CBM of DRWS provides the greatest opportunity for participation and engagement, particularly by women. The success of this approach has been demonstrated by the presence of women representing more than 60% of the committee members on Water Point Committees and Local Water Committees. Moreover, the chairperson was female in approximately 50% of the cases and Water Point Committees employ females as caretakers 30% of the time while Local Water Committees employ females as caretakers 15% of the time. In cases where water points are served by boreholes, female participation in the Water Point Committees averages between 40% and 50%. While CBM empowers women to participate and become engaged in rural water supply, it does not provide the same support to youth. On the other hand, at higher management levels, women represent less than a third of the staff component. The second approach, that of basin management, provides the potential for greater female participation and engagement but this potential is not being realised with only 15% of committee members being women. Basin Management Committees can be perceived as more important than Water Point Committees which might be an explanation for the lower number of women involved. On the other hand, BMC members are nominated from institutions represented on the Forum where women may already be under represented. If the equity and empowerment of women talked about in the Constitution, Vision 2030 and other high-level documents is to be realised, more than business-as-usual will have to be promoted in the water sector. Youth are almost entirely omitted by the two mechanisms described above, but are addressed by awareness creation, possibly more so than their elders as much of the awareness is targeted at school level. It must be noted that both community based management and basin management are very expensive processes. These costs are not only in monetary terms but reflect unaccounted for time, energy and other resources of a multitude of people. It is agreed by most, however, that the absence of these mechanisms to promote participation and engagement in water management and use would lead to an untenable situation. Without participation and engagement, government would have to provide all water supply and management, charging for services that people, in many instances, can ill afford. Increased rather than decreased participation and engagement will be essential for the future to reach the Millennium Development Goals and Vision 2030.

8.2.4 Description of awareness creation processes Following the severe drought of the early eighties the Municipality of Windhoek and the DWAF started a water awareness campaign to inform the public about water demand management measures in order to conserve and save water in the Windhoek. The annual Agricultural Show was also used by the Department and the City to bring the message across to the public in general and the youth in particular. However, due to improved rainfall 121 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

conditions from the middle eighties onwards, the water awareness campaign lost some of its momentum, but following another severe drought period at the beginning of the nineties, the then Department of Water Affairs established a National Water Awareness Campaign in 1992 and created a publications unit to oversee the production of suitable and useful resource materials on pertinent water issues. Its main task was to educate the public about the water and wetland resources of Namibia, shared responsibilities and shared river basins. Elements of this campaign were described by Bethune in the Kuiseb Water Resources Management Plan (2008). These initiatives were the initiation of an ongoing water awareness campaign that has waxed and waned depending on the amount of annual rain and the availability of potable water for a majority of people living in Namibia. This campaign has been bolstered by the formulation of Millennium Development Goals, Vision 2030 and the National Development Plans for Namibia. As stated elsewhere, this campaign has been successful in creating awareness and acceptance of the statement that ‘water is life’ but has not gone far toward creating better understanding or encouraging participation and engagement of the rural and urban population in water conservation and management issues.

8.2.5 Awareness creation materials The Department of Water Affairs, in collaboration with NGO's like the DRFN and donor partners, nevertheless made a commendable and concerted effort to produce at least one factual, educational, resource on water or wetlands each year. The special publications committee, headed by the Director Resource Management in the DWAF, Piet Heyns, was formed under the National Water Awareness Campaign to oversee this. Error! Reference source not found. on the next page lists the water education materials produced in collaboration with the MAWF over the last 16 years, many of them with the DRFN, and promoted by the Wetland Working Group of Namibia. This table does not include a myriad of other materials produced, including reports and posters, produced by the DRWS, various donors and others interested in raising awareness about water management and use. While the materials were all of high quality, dissemination of these materials to their intended target audiences was not always efficient and effective. Often their value was not understood by regional DWAF personnel or donors who had not directly funding the materials who might have taken the materials further. They continue to be used by schools, environmental education programmes and similar organized groups although their impact on understanding, management and use by the general population has yet to be critically evaluated.

8.2.6 Awareness raising events Over the last 17 years the Directorate of Resource Management in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry together with the Wetlands Working Group of Namibia has been responsible for coordinating the efforts of Government, NGOs and the private sector to celebrate World Wetland Day (2 February) and World Water Day (22 March) every year, to create an awareness and appreciation of our water and wetland resources.

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Table 8.4: Educational Resources on Water

Year Educational Resource on Water Reference Collaborating Partners 1992 Oshanas – sustaining people, environment Marsh and Seely DRFN, DWA, Sida, NORAD, and development in central Owambo DWA, WWGN 1992 Water in Namibia – a resource package to Ward DRFN, NORAD, DWA, develop awareness of water WWGN 1993 Managing boreholes and grazing areas in Katjiua et al. DRFN, Sida, SARDEP, Namibia, Okavango and Otjozondjupa MAWRD, UNICEF, 1994 More about..water in Namibia - Pallett and Ward DRFN, NORAD, DWA, Understanding the Oshana Environment WWGN, DRFN, Sida 1995 Sink or swim. Water and the Namibian Du Toit et al. DRFN, DWA, Sida Environment – Enviroteach 1995 Ephemeral rivers and their catchments – Jacobson et al. DRFN, DWA Sida sustaining people and development in western Namibia 1996 Managing water points and grazing areas in Forbes-Irving DRFN, Sida, SARDEP, Namibia, the Cuvelai MAWRD, UNICEF, MHSS, 1997 Sharing water in southern Africa Pallett et al. DRFN, DWA, WWGN 1998 Guide to the common plants of the Cuvelai Clarke DWA, SABONET, NBRI, wetlands WWGN 1998 Namibia’s Water – a decision makers guide Heyns et al. DWA, DRFN, Sida 1999 Managing water points and grazing areas in Forbes- Irving and DRFN, Sida, SARDEP, Namibia, Erongo & northern Kunene & Ward MAWRD, UNICEF, MHSS Caprivi 1999 Managing water points and grazing areas in Forbes- Irving and DRFN, Sida, SARDEP, Namibia, Karas, Hardap, Omaheke and Ward MAWRD, UNICEF, MHSS southern Kunene 1999 State of the Environment Report – Water in WCE, DRFN, MET, MAWRD, DRFN, WCE Namibia 2001 Water Plants of Namibia Clarke and Klaassen DWA, NBRI, Sida, WWGN 2002 Water Pollution: A resource book for Tarr and NWAC National Water Awareness IGCSE in Namibia Campaign DWA, WWGN, Sida 2004 Teachers Resources on the Okavango River Bethune and van Sida, KCS, ERP, DRFN, Basin Wyk WWGN 2004 Best practices and approaches for Every River has its Sida, DRFN, NNF promoting shared river basin management People Project 2004 Okavango River: the flow of a lifeline Mendlesohn and el Sida, WWGN Obeid 2004 Wetlands of Namibia Shaw et al. DWA, NNF, WWGN, Sida, IUCN, 2005 Exploring the Okavango River, a teacher’s Ward DRFN, DWA, EU guide to: Okavango River: the flow of a lifeline 2005 Okavango River and Basin – One river, three Ward DRFN, DWA, EU countries: African tapestry of people and wildlife. Tourist Map 2006 Namibian wetlands - Wetlands are special Shigwedha and MET, The Namibian, WWGN, places, lets preserve them Bethune 2007 Water is Life – Bush Telegraph Keding. V NaDeet EEC, DWAF, WWGN, GEF SGF, Sida 2007 Caring for our water – a resource book Roberts and DWAF, WWGN, Sida, GEF, Sguazzin SGF 2007 Etosha Pan a wetland of international Bethune and Roberts MET, WWGN, DWAF importance 2008 Wetlands of Namibia Bethune et al WWGN, DWAF, Sida 2008 Okavango River- Whose delta is it? Bethune et al MET, WWGN, DWAF

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Each year, different partners within the water sector, under the guidance of a standing committee, collaborate to create a national water event linking these two days. In addition to the staff from the MAWF and the Wetlands Working Group, partners over the years have been NamWater, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, the Namibia Nature Foundation, the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia and the Coastal Environmental Trust of Namibia (CETN). The international themes for world water and world wetland day guide selection of a national theme. Materials produced include wetland and water posters, brochures and stickers. These events also offer further opportunity for distribution of a variety of awareness materials. Ten years ago, the CETN, initiated an annual wetland quiz for high schools in the coastal towns of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund as well as Arandis. With time this evolved into a series of regional school quizzes or art competitions that culminate in a national competition. The aims of these annual celebrations are to educate the general public and to teach our scholars and students about important water issues. In 2008, the joint celebration for World Wetlands Day and World Water Day focused on river basin management and was held beside the Okavango River. In 2009 the event was celebrated at Avis Dam. Recognition of these World Days draws attention to water issues and usually the press is very attentive. Nevertheless, those involved are usually from urban areas and are among the more affluent who already have an awareness of the importance of water. Alternative approaches are required to spread the message further to the rural communities which is, indeed, happening through the activities of DRWS and various rural programmes. The City of Windhoek has undertaken some very good awareness raising campaigns, particularly in the early 1980's and 1990's when there were several years of low rainfall. The success of their campaign can be measured by the decrease in overall water demand throughout the city. When the rain returned to above average, the campaign was halted and water demand increased. Continuous application of information and incentives is essential to ensure ongoing awareness by all residents of Windhoek as well as in other areas in Namibia.

8.2.7 Studies with potential to contribute to awareness creation materials A number of studies have taken place in the water sector to provide background for enhanced understanding, awareness, participation and engagement. These range from technical studies commissioned by NamWater and DWAF to student training projects. Some of the studies took place during major projects such as the NWRMR. The results of these numerous studies have never been collated or synthesized and lie scattered throughout the libraries and offices of a variety of institutions interested in water, e.g. NamWater, DWAF, Polytechnic of Namibia (PON), DRFN. At times the materials on a particular subject may be synthesized, for example through the PhD studies that resulted in the ‘Ephemeral Rivers’ book, the thesis entitled ‘More water, less grass’ and the thesis on artificial recharge of the Windhoek aquifer. Even these synthesis documents are not widely known, nor easily accessible. 124 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

At other times the studies may be taken further and applied to developments such as the student projects which surveyed farm dams and established a water balance in the Kuiseb River and Omaruru River basins thus contributing baseline information toward establishment of the basin management committees. A variety of water-related studies are currently being conducted in the Fish Basin and Okavango Basin under the auspices of river basin projects. Although a number of studies have been undertaken, their usefulness toward enhancing awareness, participation and engagement has been limited. Some of the studies have contributed to awareness raising materials and baseline literature. Others have been compiled and now sit on shelves unused. Their potential for supporting further participation and engagement, particularly amongst women and youth, is huge but this potential has been only minimally exploited to date.

8.2.8 School and tertiary level awareness School and tertiary level awareness creation falls into several categories, e.g. formal primary and secondary schools, tertiary education institutions, and environmental education organisations such as the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust and the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre or ad hoc projects. For example, the DHPS does an annual ‘water-walk’ with Grade 3-4 children while Grade 8- 9 children look into water conservation. Often, however, their studies are not specific to water in Namibia. At the same level, each year coastal schools are involved in national water and wetland competitions. The annual water and wetland quizzes organised by CETN, involve all 10 high schools at the coast and in some years they are also held in other regions. Namibia’s higher education institutions (PON, UNAM) offer water conservation related awareness creation through degrees (e.g. Bachelor, Master degree modules at the PON). For the last decade, students from the Polytechnic of Namibia have been encouraged to base their practical research projects on pertinent river basin issues. For the last three years the Okavango IRBM project has sponsored 12 such projects on the Okavango River (Bergmann 2008) and the Omaruru Basin project sponsored four students. The Wetlands Working Group has sponsored and supervised an additional ten students working on wetland birds. Currently, interns from the Polytechnic of Namibia are working with an in- depth study of water recharge in the Kuiseb alluvial aquifer funded by the Gobabeb Centre. This is part of a long-term programme held at Gobabeb to provide hands-on experience of research for development. As the concept of basin management was developing, Sida funded a thirteen-year programme known as the Summer Desertification Projects, SDP, whereby tertiary education students spent two intensive months learning about and researching key aspects of river basins under the supervision of the DRFN. These took place in the Kuiseb (three times) Omaruru (two times) and Cuvelai (two times). As noted elsewhere, much of this school and tertiary level awareness creation is available to youth able to afford going to good schools or attend tertiary institutions. Much less awareness is available to poor, rural students. The Enviroteach cross-curricular, learner- 125 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

centred, activity-based book on water entitled ‘Sink of Swim’ was targeted at Teacher Training Colleges. It has not been formally adopted by the Ministry of Education and is applied mainly by better-trained teachers in less conservative schools.

8.2.9 Awareness creation summary Awareness creation has been addressed on an ongoing basis in Namibia for the past 19 years. Overall it has probably succeeded in ensuring that everyone knows that ‘water is life’. Greater availability of materials and greater exposure to awareness raising activities has been accorded to youth in urban rather than rural areas. Adults have also been exposed to awareness raising campaigns but these have been sporadic, usually responding to lower than average rainfall in a particular year. The contribution of awareness creation to participation and engagement of the populace, men, women and youth, in water management and use, from domestic to national levels, has been limited. Nevertheless, despite the expense and energy involved, absence of awareness creation would only make the situation worse. Awareness creation to date can be considered the essential foundation for further indispensable efforts toward enhanced understanding of Namibia’s scarce water resources and how they can best be managed and used. A summary of public involvement in water management is provided in Table 8.5 on the next page. 126 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Stakeholder Engagement

Table 8.5: Summary of Public Involvement in Water Management

Item Awareness Participation Engagement

Men Men know little about the Men are participating in Men are engaged in water potential of women and water management and management and use. They youth to support IWRM or use, particularly in the rural often contribute to decision WDM matters and rarely areas during the course of making, operation and consider it themselves. managing livestock. When maintenance, as well as Some of those involved in given the opportunity, they, using water for individual water management are as with women, contribute purposes. They often tend aware of aspects of the to digging trenches for to make isolated decisions policy and legal landscape pipelines and similar amongst men only, although but many do not have activities. In urban areas if women are present they access to the they use water for a variety may be included. More men documentation. While aware of individual purposes, e.g. than women have relevant of sanitation issues, they car washing, bathing and training and experience for often believe it is a women’s watering the garden. water management. responsibility.

Women Women intuitively know Women participate in water Women are engaged in something about the management and use. In water management and potential of everyone to urban and rural areas they use. They routinely support IWRM or WDM use water for a variety of contribute to decision matters. Similarly most are individual purposes and are making and management aware of aspects related to responsible for sanitation on the household and family the policy and legal arrangements if these are level and women and girls landscape. While they are in place. are mainly responsible for aware of health and hygiene water provision in rural related to sanitation, they areas. Members of Water sometimes don’t have the Point Committees are knowledge or skills to predominantly women, address the challenges particularly on the pipeline presented. schemes.

Youth Youth know little about the Youth participate in water Youth are engaged in water potential to support IWRM or management and use. use but less frequently in WDM matters. When they They use water for water management. In rural are exposed to awareness individual purposes and areas they often assist in campaigns in school and may learn about water use water provision or water elsewhere they often take and management in school collection for the household. the lessons learnt to their

families and contribute to engagement and participation in IWRM activities and approaches.

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9 GENDER ISSUES CONCERNING IWRM

9.1 INTRODUCTION According to the 2000 NWP the management and planning of water resources shall be integrated across economic, environmental and social dimensions. The policy advocates twelve basic principles that are based on the Namibian Constitution, the 1993 WASP, Agenda 21 of the 1992 Earth Summit, the Dublin Principles and the SADC water policies as reflected in the Protocol on Shared Watercourses. According to the policy, water planning and development should take place within a framework that allows awareness creation and participation by all stakeholders in the process, including a sensitive approach to gender issues. Capacity building is an important approach in this regard to ensure competent participation in the water management discourse. All people should have access to sufficient and safe water for a healthy and productive life, but due to the vulnerability and scarcity of the water resources in the country, the economic value of water should be recognised in such a way the use of water is efficient and cost effective. The management of water resources should promote equity and sustainable socio-economic development. The development of water resources should be cost effective and policy instruments should be elaborated and adopted to ensure improved valuation of the water resources, viable capital investments to develop infrastructure, appropriate water tariffs and water pricing aimed at cost recovery, but also to make provision for the introduction of subsidies and cross subsidies for the supply of safe water to meet the basic needs of the very poor. The specific issues of gender related to water rights and cost sharing are not given prominence in any of the legislation currently at hand. Nevertheless, the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia, Namibia’s Vision 2030, the Millennium Development Goals and the Namibian Water Policy all stress gender equity and equality throughout their texts. The Preamble to the Constitution, as the primary law of the land, provides the following: • Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is indispensable for freedom, justice and peace; • Whereas the said rights include the right of the individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of race, colour, ethnic origin, sex, religion, creed or social or economic status; Chapter 3 of the Constitution deals with Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms and Article 10 states the following with regards to equality and freedom from discrimination: • All persons shall be equal before the law. • No persons may be discriminated against on the grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status. Nevertheless, there are a number of elements of the legislation, policy strategies, guidelines, procedures, by-laws and codes of practice that could refer to gender issues related to water rights or licences and cost sharing that has not been examined in detail (Holch, pers. comm.). See Figure 9.1 below. Many of these elements undoubtedly provide opportunities 128 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment for gender support although all of them are subject to the Constitution that may be understood as sufficient.

Figure 9.1: Legal Framework

9.2 GENDER, WATER REGULATIONS AND LICENCES The Water Resources Management Act (2004) currently being revised is examined in detail as a case in point. There are a number of regulations and licences that will be developed to support implementation of the Act. Many of these regulations are gender neutral but some of them provide opportunities for gender initiatives to ensure that women and youth are involved on an equitable basis. Regulations and licences required for the Water Resources Management Act currently under revision with comments on relevance to gender issues (from Ben van der Merwe, 2008). See Table 9.1 on the next page.

9.3 GENDER AND WATER REGULATIONS The requirements imposed on gender by the regulations to be promulgated as prescribed in terms of the water legislation, will only be known when that has been done. This issue therefore must be carefully considered at that time, particularly with regard to elements of water supply for which licences or permits will be required. Although the regulations prescribed in the Water Resources Management Act refer to a variety of issues, licences are primarily related to water abstraction (groundwater and surface water) and use and discharge of effluent. In all cases, the issuing and control of licences appears to be gender neutral and does not favour or disadvantage men or women but possibly youth. Some of the regulations, although not specifically so designed, provide an opportunity to enhance gender equity. These are mainly the regulations related to institutional development, e.g. water management institutions such as the Water Advisory Councils. Development of water service plans, water conservation and water demand management strategies also provide another opportunity to enhance gender equity. Similarly, control over the use of wetland resources (for communal, commercial and recreational use, development 129 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment on river banks and the removal of material from a watercourse or nearby banks) provides opportunity to enhance gender equity. These opportunities must be promoted. Table 9.1: The Water Resources Management Act and Gender

Priority Section Remarks 1 Section 45 (1) Numerical standards not binding without a regulation [gender neutral] 1 Section 46 (3) (a) Control of water service providers [gender neutral] 1 Section 47 (1) Licensing of water service providers for abstraction and distribution of water [gender neutral] 2 Section 82 (1) (a ) Standards for effluent quality not binding without a regulation (Control of waste water treatment plant etc) [gender neutral] 2 Section 84 (1) Licence to discharge effluent or construct a wastewater treatment facility or a waste disposal site [gender neutral] 3 Section 53 (2) Application for a licence to abstract and use water [gender neutral] 3 Section 54 (1) (i) Additional Criteria for licence evaluation [gender neutral] 3 Section 59 Expiry or cancellation of a licence to abstract and use water [gender neutral] 3 Section 64 (2) and Licensing of drillers and drilling of boreholes [gender neutral] (4) 3 Section 75 (5) Withdrawal of licence of drillers or drilling of boreholes [gender neutral] 4 Sections 100, 101, Dams in water courses and Dam Safety [gender neutral] 102, 103, 104 and 105 4 Section 106 Prevention of flood risk [gender neutral] 5 Section 23 Water Basin Management Institutions [potential for gender initiatives] 5 Section 24 Declaration of Water Basin Management Areas for each area [gender neutral] List of Regulations not Prioritised Section 6 1 (g) Registration of geo-hydrologist [gender neutral] Section 9 Water Advisory Council [potential for gender initiatives] Sections 40 and 41 Registration of water point association or local water association [potential for gender initiatives] Section 48 (1) Reservation of water resources [gender neutral] Section 74 (1) (f) Control of artificial recharge of aquifers [gender neutral] Sections 90 (1), 91 Declaration of water protection area [gender neutral] (2) and 92 Important Section 96 Development of water service plans, water conservation and water demand management strategies [potential for gender initiatives] Important Section 108 Control of use of wetland resources (Commercial and recreational use, development on banks and removal of material from a water course) [potential for gender initiatives] Section 109 & 110 Control of aquatic invasive species and Protection of riparian zones [gender neutral] Important Section 111 Determination of water, wastewater and effluent pricing policy [gender neutral] Important Section 112 and 113 Water reuse, wastewater and effluent discharge charges, fees and tariffs [gender neutral] Section 129 (4) Right of entry upon or into any property for inspection, investigation, establishment of hydrographic stations, research, survey, taking of samples, or rehabilitation work and other remedial work [gender neutral] Section 135 (2) (b) Financial assistance [potential for gender initiatives] Important Section 136 (3) Offences [gender neutral] Section 137 (1) Regulations in general [gender neutral]

9.4 COST SHARING AND GENDER Similar to water licences, cost sharing is not addressed in the legislation with a particular eye to gender. There are, however, opportunities for enhancing gender equity and these should 130 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment be promoted. These opportunities include the development of policy where gender could be given a more prominent role. Opportunities could also include planning concerning cost sharing and participation in the establishment of the cost sharing process.

9.5 GENDER APPROACH TO WATER RIGHTS In terms of general water rights, water licences and cost sharing, in particular with regard to drinking water and sanitation, Namibia has several overarching statements, for example in the Constitution, the various water policies and Vision 2030, but little concrete documentation of strategies for implementation exists. However, brief assessment of the situation is shown in Table 9.2 on the next page. In summary, it can be stated that Namibia is aware of and has many of the characteristics of a gender sensitive approach to water supply and sanitation. However, this approach is not generally accessible to a wide variety of people, including men, women and youth, nor is it subscribed to by all in positions of power. Full water rights as intended in the high-level legislative framework are not fully implemented in a majority of instances. There is also a measure of reluctance which should be addressed and rectified in the communication process. It is recommended that these issues be addressed as water policy evolves, water legislation is enacted and water regulations are promulgated. 131 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment

Table 9.2: A Gender Approach to Water Supply and Sanitation

Issues to be addressed Comment on Status

Tailor information to all Namibia uses a variety of media, e.g. radio, TV, posters, pamphlets, audiences: men, women and meetings, but appropriate messages are not always conveyed in youth appropriate media. Nevertheless, there is a variety of information available and much that could be interpreted for further use. Available, up-to-date gender A gender focus is needed at every step of development. While gender and poverty analyses disaggregated statistics are available in some instances, the assessment of differing impacts of development for men, women and youth are often lacking. Indicators to measure impacts must also be gender disaggregated but are usually unavailable. Participation and engagement Participation is a key element of planning in Namibia but often the in planning and design of participants are not fully engaged, are engaged only on their own behalf or water and sanitation have been selected because of their positions. Greater emphasis should be developments. placed on ensuring broad participation and engagement from a wide variety of people. Participation and The concept of ‘representation’ is not well understood in Namibia. In many representation in instances it would be more appropriate for men and women to chose their organisations own representatives. More education and training to support these roles is required. Hygiene education Hygiene education is provided mainly by extension personnel. Namibia could enhance education by involving women and youth as educators, change agents and managers, not simply as passive recipients. Men and women require gender-tailored education messages taking into account perspectives of others. Training and employment Training for water and sanitation in Namibia is often gender-blind. This disadvantages women in terms of technical, financial and managerial tasks thought to be male prerogatives based on perceived advantages. Means for improvement Credit, materials and skills are essential for improvement of water supply and sanitation. Women should be assured of equal access to finance and training. Micro-finance assists predominantly women in rural areas of Namibia which ensures women have at least some access to resources. Gender sensitivity and Namibia has undertaken various training activities in terms of gender skills sensitivity and has a Ministry dedicated to gender. Nevertheless, traditional and cultural approaches tend to be gender insensitive, particularly amongst those who have less education and training. Staffing Staffing in the water and sanitation sector tends to reflect historical conditions which include lack of gender sensitivity. Although this is changing slowly, the labour laws and civil service commission do not promote gender equity nor are they flexible enough to encourage or advance employment of women. Communication and Although information flow and results of decision making are accountability nominally available to all who are interested, often the paths of communication are not known or available equally to everyone. The concept that ‘knowledge is power’ is subscribed to by many people in higher positions in Namibia. At the same time, accountability of these leaders to the people they represent is often limited and not frequently communicated.

132 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment

10 NATIONAL AND REGIONAL WATER PLANNING REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT

10.1 INTRODUCTION In order to supply in the growing demand for water in Namibia, the Government, NamWater, certain Local Authorities, the private sector (e.g. for mining and industry), and the commercial farming community (e.g. domestic supply, stock watering and irrigation), are actively engaged in water supply development and water scheme operation. The larger water schemes are normally planned with a short term (5 to 10 years), a medium term (10 to 15 years) and a long term (10 to 30 years) planning horizon in mind to serve the nation as a whole. The timely establishment of water supply schemes to provide safe, potable water for domestic use in the cities, towns, villages and small settlements are critical to improve the standard of living, health and hygiene. The supply of water for agriculture, mining and industrial development is critical for food production job creation, and earning foreign exchange. It is clear that the establishment of the water projects to meet the needs in the country cannot take place without preparing proper national, regional and local water master plans.

10.2 NATIONAL WATER MASTER PLANNING A national water resources master plan is a broad, long term framework within which a strategy for future water supply infrastructure development is recommended to ensure that water supplies will always be available in time to support growing socio-economic development and creating national prosperity. When a master plan is prepared for a specific river basin, care should be taken that it conforms to the national water master planning strategy in a country. In the late sixties the Government of the Republic of South African started with a large development program in the then South West Africa and this resulted in growth rates of up to 7% per annum in the areas with a high population concentration such as the central north, the central area and central coastal areas of Namibia. This development caused a corresponding rise in the water demand and in order to meet the estimated future water requirements with the available water resources, the situation was assessed and broad guidelines for water infrastructure development were proposed in the 1974 Water Master Plan for South West Africa/Namibia (DWA 1974). According to those guidelines, the areas immediately adjacent to the perennial Kunene, Okavango, Orange and Zambezi rivers on the borders of Namibia must be supplied with water from those rivers, but it was also envisaged that water will have to be imported from two of the northern border rivers, the Kunene and the Okavango, into the arid interior of Namibia. The demand forecasts at that time showed that the development of the ephemeral surface water sources and groundwater sources in the country would not be able to meet the estimated future water demand in the north, central and western areas. It was therefore recommended to develop a western water carrier from the Kunene to augment the water resources in the central Cuvelai Basin and the Central Namib Area (CNA). It was also recommended to construct an eastern water carrier from the Okavango to supply additional 133 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment water to the highly industrialized central area which included the Windhoek – Okahandja complex and future links to Okakarara, Gobabis and Karibib - Usakos, Furthermore, the master plan indicated that the central southern area of the country must be supplied with water from the Fish River basin. The rest of the country should, as far as possible, be supplied with water from groundwater sources, unless an unidentified future water need would necessitate the construction of a surface water source or the development of groundwater sources to supply water over long distances by pipeline or canal from a more reliable source to a major demand centre, provided that it would be feasible to develop such infrastructure in a sustainable way. This already indicated the future long distance transfer of water from river basins with a relative abundance of water to areas where strong development is taking place, but with inadequate water resources to meet the water needs. During the development of the Ruacana hydropower scheme and the Calueque Dam – Oshivelo water carrier in the Cuvelai Basin in the north, it was decided to revise the master plan and rather use Kunene water for hydropower development and the supply of water to the north, than to divert the water to the CNA. The development of the proposed western water carrier was therefore abandoned and it was agreed that the proposed Eastern National Water Carrier (ENWC) from the Okavango River in the northeast should be extended to the central coast. However, other measures to augment the coastal developments were also investigated, such as the proposed Otjompaue Dam and the proposed Nei-neis Dam on the Omaruru River, as well as the possibilities for desalinating sea water. In fact, the Department of Water Affairs conducted a research project at Swakopmund in the late seventies to investigate the feasibility of the available desalination technologies at that time. The National Water Master Plan proposed the preparation of regional water master plans that would be developed within the framework of the master plan. This gave rise to the preparation of regional water master plans for the areas referred to at that time as Owambo, Hereroland, the Kavango, the Caprivi, Namaland, Damaraland and the Central Namib. Based on this planning a number of important regional bulk water supply schemes were constructed, such as the Braunfels – Khorixas scheme, the Central Namib scheme, the Koichab Pan - Luderitz scheme, the Nei-neis - Uis scheme, the Ogongo - Okahau scheme, the Okakarara – Otjituuo scheme, the Omarassa – Otjiwarongo scheme, the Ondangwa – Oshikango scheme, the Orab – Gibeon scheme, and the Otjivero – Gobabis scheme to name a few. The local water supply schemes to the larger centres such as Karibib, Katima Mulilo, Khorixas, Rehoboth, Rundu, Opuwo, Tsumkwe, Usakos and others were also improved. The National water Master Plan also led to the development of a number of large dams to secure the supply of water, notably the dams called Swakoppoort, Omatako, Otjivero, Oanob and Omdel. After the independence of Namibia in 1990, large developments were expected all over the country and particular attention was given to the revision of the Water Master Plan with particular reference to the central area and water supply to the central Namib coast. This led to the preparation and adoption of a Water Master Plan for the Central Area of Namibia in 1993 (MAWRD/DWA 1993). During the study to prepare the Central Area Water Master Plan the feasibility to link the ENWC with the coast was investigated and it became clear that it would not be economically viable. It was therefore recommended to abandon the plan to 134 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment supply the coast with water from the Okavango and it was proposed that a feasibility study for the development of water supply to the Central Namib Area of Namibia should be done. This Feasibility Study for the Development of Water Supply to the Central Namib Area was completed in 1996 (MAWRD/DWA 1996) and it was concluded that the central coastal area will have to be supplied from groundwater, in conjunction with desalinated sea water. The present Water Master Plan is shown in Figure 10.1

Figure 10.1: The Water Master Plan

The framework for the broad development of water resources and water supply infrastructure in Namibia has been developed in the early seventies and this planning not only served as a basis for the establishment of existing bulk water supply schemes, but there is little more that can be changed about the broad plan in the near future. Any future adjustment to the broad National Water Master Plan should be carefully considered from a practical, financial feasibility and environmentally sustainable point of view, keeping in mind such ambitious proposals as transferring water from the Zambezi into the interior of Namibia or linking the Congo River with countries in southern Africa, including Namibia. The latter proposal was assessed by the Namibian Department of Water Affairs (DWA) under the 135 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment auspices of the SADC Water Division and found to be technically possible, but not warranted for implementation at this time when the utilisation of the water resources of such rivers as the Zambezi (and the Okavango in the case of Namibia) further to the south of the Congo River has not been considered first. The need to gain access to a reasonable an equitable share in the waters of the perennial rivers shared with the other basin states was elaborated in the Master Plan, but it was only after independence that Namibia could, as an independent sovereign State, start negotiating with the other basin States to develop perennial water sources. Namibia went through the process of establishing water commissions with the other basin States to enable the country to start with discussions about its expectations of using the water from the border rivers, to collaborate and to do feasibility investigations, to build understanding, and trust, to develop capacity and to cooperate, as well as to gather information to take informed decisions before any conflicting situation arise. The water master plan that had been developed in the early seventies and presented in 1974 has not only laid the foundation of the policy for water infrastructure development in Namibia, but has been refined and adjusted over time. The most important guidelines for the development of the water resources in Namibia have been followed as originally proposed and the plan, but had been supplemented with more detailed regional master plans and specific project plans. However the main policy principles of the master remain in place and are briefly: • The water resources of the perennial border rivers should be used in close proximity, adjacent to those rivers as far as possible and used to augment the water sources in the interior of the country when it becomes necessary. • The perennial Kunene River water should be imported into the northern, ephemeral Cuvelai Basin and into the northern portions of the Kunene Region to supply in urban and rural domestic water needs as well as irrigated agricultural development. • The balance of the water sources of the Kunene River should be reserved for the generation of hydropower due to the steep gradient of the river on its way to the coast and the inherent potential to develop hydropower projects.

• The perennial Okavango River water should be utilised for domestic water supply and irrigation along the river, but water should also be imported into central Namibia to augment the internal ephemeral surface water and groundwater sources. • The central coastal region must be supplied with groundwater from the coastal alluvial aquifers in the ephemeral rivers and seawater should be desalinated to augment those sources. • The surface water potential of the ephemeral Fish River, that is a tributary of the Orange River, should be developed by constructing dams. • The water from the perennial Orange River should be utilised for domestic use, irrigation and mining development. 136 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment

• The areas in Namibia that are remotely located from major ephemeral and perennial surface water sources should be supplied from groundwater sources. As a result of the proposals in the water master plan, there is a policy to develop local water sources first and as the managed water demand grows, to link the local water schemes to more remotely located regional water sources by means of long distance, water transfer schemes, which may also be interbasin in nature. When the regional water schemes cannot meet demand, the water schemes should be linked to a national water scheme that obtains its water from a perennial border river. Namibia has been optimising the yield from its internal water sources through: • The integrated use of surface water impoundments that are linked together, • The conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater sources, • Water banking in the Windhoek Aquifer, • Artificial aquifer recharge in the Omdel Aquifer, • By increasing the capacity of the sewage reclamation facilities in Windhoek and • A successful water demand management campaign in major towns. By using the internal water resources in the central area, as a system, resource efficiency could be increased and these measures contributed to delay the need to complete the final link to the Okavango. However, the future need to gain access to the perennial waters will enhance the efficiency of the yield of the ephemeral surface water sources in the interior of Namibia even further. The preparation of the IWRMP can be seen as part of a third major revision of national water master planning in the country and will make provision for the accommodation of the latest trends in water resources development and management which will see Namibia through for at least the next 20 years until 2030.

10.3 BULK WATER SUPPLY PLANNING NamWater is responsible for bulk water supply in Namibia and as a matter of course it is necessary that a continuous assessment must be made of the water demand and supply situation to determine the capital investments required to maintain existing water supply infrastructure and to develop new infrastructure to meet the managed water demands of the future. This will also facilitate the short, medium and long term capital investments required to meet the challenges of meeting water demands in a growing economy moving towards the goals of Vision 2030. The primary function of a water infrastructure development master plan is to provide information about the long term water demand and supply situation, the infrastructure development that would be required to meet the estimated future water demands and to recommend a short, medium and long term capital expenditure programme with respect to the investments necessary over time to implement the plan. This will not only ensure sufficient supply to meet reasonable and managed water demands, but provision would also be made to recover the capital investments for new water schemes and to generate the 137 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment income required for the operation and maintenance of the water supply infrastructure. Water schemes may also be developed in phases over time, or upgraded as the water demands increase. All water schemes have components that reach the end of their economic life over time and they need to be replaced with components of higher capacity, which means that capital extension and replacement issues form part of such a master plan. For each area- specific water master plan the following work will be done: • Evaluate the historical water demand and the realistic present water demand; • Estimate the realistic future water demand; • Describe the existing water scheme, scheme components and condition; • Evaluate the present scheme capacity by component (Resources, pumping installations, pipelines, storage facilities, disinfection facilities, control and monitoring systems) and the remaining useful life of all components; • Evaluate the current spare capacity or capacity shortfall and the date when additional capacity will be required; • Define the available options to improve capacity where required; • Estimate the costs for the creation of additional capacity, capital replacement and extension; • Estimate the costs associated with improved efficiency, service level, operations, and equipment; • State why, when and at what capital cost new investments will be required; NamWater is at present in the process of preparing water supply infrastructure development and capital replacement master water master plans for a number of water supply areas as shown in Figure 10.2 on the next page and the present status of these plans is as reflected below: • Central South – completed • Far South – completed • Central Namib – in preparation • Central North – in preparation • North East – in preparation • North West – in preparation • Central Area – to commence • Central East and West – to commence

10.4 RURAL WATER SUPPLY PLANNING The development of rural water supply infrastructure was the responsibility of the Second Tier or Homelands Authorities before the independence of Namibia, but after independence, these institutions were abolished and replaced wit Regional Authorities. The rural water 138 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment supply function was transferred to the Department of Agriculture, but after the adoption of the 1993 Water Supply and Sanitation Policy, the function of rural water supply was transferred to the DWA in the MAWRD at that time.

Figure 10.2: NamWater Water Master Plan Areas

The strategic planning, funding, capacity building and actual development of rural water supply infrastructure was placed on a firm footing and was extremely successful as can be seen in the plus 85% coverage of water supply infrastructure to supply safe and affordable water to the rural communities. The community involvement and participation through the concept of community based management was introduced and is successfully established in many places, although a lot of work still needs to be done. The operation and management of rural water supply infrastructure will in future be the responsibility of the Regional Authorities with technical support provided by the DWAF. The rural water supply planning until 2012 forms part of the third National Development Plan for the period 2007 to 2012 (NDP3). Please refer to Table 10.1 on the next page. The Division of Rural Water Supply is also engaged in large scale water supply infrastructure projects, funded for the 2009/10 financial year as shown in Table 10.2. These projects 139 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment include rural bulk water supply to places like Opuwo and Aus, the proposed Neckartal Dam investigation, and desalination Table 10.1: Proposed Rural Water Development Projects

Region Project All Regions except Khomas Implementation of Technical Support Services (TSS) Establishment of the Trust Fund for Regional Development and Equity Provision Caprivi Pipeline water supply between Katima Mulilo and Kongola Pipeline water supply from Katima Mulilo to Ngoma Erongo Piped water supply to Omatjete Piped water supply to Otjimbingwe Drilling in Omatjete, Otjimbingwe, Uis and Spitzkoppe Hardap Potable water supply to the salt block area Kransplatz earth dam construction (feasibility study) Earth dam construction at Vaaldam Borehole construction/repair at Voigtsgrund Karas Water supply to the communal farm Nauchab Potable water supply to the salt block area Construction of 19 earth dams Kavango Water supply to displaced communities Feasibility study for pipeline water supply based on the RRWSDP Rehabilitation of 80 boreholes Drilling and the installation of 85 boreholes Kunene Piped water supply to Otjinungua – Okatapati Drilling and installation of 6 boreholes Ohangwena Regional Rural Water Supply Development Plan for Ohangwena Construction of 16 water point at existing pipeline schemes Drilling and installation of 32 boreholes Construction of 47 earth dams Water supply - short pipeline extensions, total distance of 258km Pipeline water supply from Eenhana to Okongo Omaheke Extension of water supply by pipeline from Otjikoto within Eiseb Water Supply in Otjozondjupa and Omaheke Project Water supply from borehole at Otjoruharui (Eiseb 6) Extensions from the ENWC Water distribution from boreholes No. 41023; 200053, 200054 and 200055 Water distribution to areas with little or no water sources Drilling and installation of boreholes Construction of earth dams Omusati Water supply to Ruacana South Regional Rural Water Supply Development Plan for the Omusati Water supply to Otamanzi between Okahao and Onaanda Omuthitu - Okanya Water Pipeline Project Feasibility study on the utilization of the Etaka channel Construction of 37 earth dams Drilling and installation of 8 boreholes Water supply by short pipelines, total distance of 260km Upgrading of 20 borehole water points Oshana Regional Rural Water Supply Development Plan for Oshana Upgrading of the Ogongo – Oshakati pipeline for billing Oshikoto Regional Rural Water Supply Development Plan for the Oshikoto Water supply by short pipeline extensions, total distance of 320km Construction of 28 earth dams Drilling and installation of 6 boreholes Upgrading of the Onandjokwe – Oshigambo (5km) pipeline Water supply to Onamuthida – Esheshete Water supply to Okankolo – Onkumbula Water supply to Uukekete – Oshiyageka Water supply to Omuntele – Ilwelekete – Okuma Water supply to Onguma – Oshitutuma, Amupapala Otjozondjupa Regional Rural Water Supply Development Plan for the Otjozondjupa Water Supply in Otjozondjupa and Omaheke Project 140 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment

Table 10.2: Projects Programmed and Funded by Rural Water Supply

Project Cost 2009/10 (N$)

Capital Recurrent

Upgrading of community water points 46 550 000 None Rural piped water supply coverage 40 500 000 None Regional rural water supply development plan 5 000 000 None Construction of dams, traditional wells and pans for livestock 12 000 000 None drinking Constituency office construction funded by RWS 6 000 000 None Lux-Dev 3 600 000 Policy / strategy development and review th a) Development of a 5-year national sanitation strategic plan 2009-2014 9 EDF b) Subsidies None 500 000 Decentralisation 600 000 None Finalize RWS delegation to regional council DDC-MRLGHRD Provision of water to towns and settlements: 45 000 None Aus and Grünau Desalination: (a) Development of a desalination plant at the coast 250 000 None (b) Water supply to salt block (c) Water supply to Opuwo from Kunene river Construction of large dams 1 000 000 None Spanish cooperation (Transferred to CBM) 25 000 000 None

ICEIDA To increase access to potable water for rural communities in 8 000 000 the Kunene Region LUX- DEVELOPMENT Project NAM/345 To assist in the decentralization process and to increase the 41 138 000 3 600 000 access to safe, drinking water and sanitation in the Kavango and Caprivi regions.

10.5 INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT PLANNING The above approach of water master planning with infrastructure development objectives in mind is somewhat different when an integrated water resources master plan must be developed in a basin management context. Policies and decisions regarding water resources management are usually determined at the national level as has been illustrated in previous chapters in this report. This includes legislation and the establishment of institutions, such as a basin management committee, within which water resources management takes place. An integrated water resources plan must take into account all activities and developments requiring water or influencing the water resources. Among these are the availability and magnitude of the water resources, land use, water supply and sanitation, agriculture, industry and mining, as well ecological requirements, water quality, pollution control, the economic use of water and water supply cost recovery to name a few. The plan should include a balanced, cross-sectoral approach, stakeholder involvement and a prioritised series of programmes for the implementation of the IWRMP

141 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation National and Regional Water Planning Review and Assessment

The formulation of a national water resources plan may have four distinct phases: • Identify water resource issues, such as quantity, quality, demand, floods, droughts, human impacts and natural effects, such as climate change. • Identify the management interventions which are required to deal with the issues identified. These may include policy development, legislation, planning and coordination, water allocation, effluent treatment, information collection and dissemination, monitoring etc. • Assess institutional capacities at all levels and determine the potentials and constraints to attend to the issues at hand, including the efficiency of the institutional structures and the adequacy of human and financial resources. • Prepare a strategy to improve any deficiencies identified that would impair the coordinated implementation of the plan. A basin management plan is a tool that describes the framework for the management of the water and related land resources in the basin and outlines how the concept of integrated water resources management is going to be implemented. A basin management plan typically addresses such aspects as: • A physical description of the basin and resource inventories • The assessment of water availability and present water demands • Estimate the water needs of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems • The allocation of water, water demand management and water quality objectives • Water treatment, disposal of effluent and pollution control • The identification of stakeholders and obtaining their participation • To determine priority issues and long term goals for the development of the basin • To estimate the managed future water demands • To determine the water infrastructure related developments required • To assess water scheme vulnerability to climate extremes like floods, droughts and climate change • Develop a strategy to achieve the implementation goals, including capacity building, financing and monitoring

10.6 CONCLUSION From the above it is clear that water resources planning and development in an arid country like Namibia made it possible to have the extensive water supply coverage that is available to most of the population, but more work would be required to meet the expectations of Vision 2030 and the preparation of the proposed IWRMP is seen as the tool to make further progress to achieve the development goals of Namibia. 142 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

11 INVESTMENT IN WATER SERVICES

11.1 INTRODUCTION In order to ensure that investment are made in the activities related to the implementation of integrated water resources management and to ensure that the improvement of water services keep abreast with the changing demand patterns, sufficient and appropriate sources of funding should be ensured by the Government. The current investment in water services in all sectors will briefly be assessed and this will serve as the background to proposals for investments in the future. The source of the investments as well as the level of investment will be assessed to determine the shortfall to meet current development targets. Investment in water infrastructure and service provision is especially challenging in urban areas with high population growth rates resulting from rural urban migration which is approximately 3% to 5% annum in the larger urban centres. If Vision 2030 must be realised, the urban population will be 3.5 times more than the current number over the next 22 years. Similar challenges to alleviate backlogs in service provision are expected at many rural settlements. In addition to the continuous budget limitations to provide funding for integrated water resources management to the DWAF, as well as the lack of funding for water services, the maintenance of infrastructure and the expansion of infrastructure by NamWater and Local Authorities, the latter entities are also hampered by large amounts of outstanding debt to service providers which was estimated at N$ 457 million in January 2009.

11.2 DEFINING THE INVESTMENT GAP In order to address the issue of an investment gap in water resources management and development it would be useful to define what the term "investment gap" means to ensure that all stakeholders have a common understanding when the issue is explored and discussed. A gap is a divergence or difference or disparity, for example the gap between expenses and income or the gap between ideals and actions. There can also be a difference or disparity in attitudes, perceptions, character, or development, or a lack of confidence or understanding or technical issues perceived as creating a problem, such as a technology gap or a communications gap. From this definition it can be derived that an investment gap is the difference between the funding required to meet certain development objectives to be planned for and the funding or budget that is eventually made available for those development objectives that have been planned for and are ready to be developed. See Figure 11.1 on the next page. The investment is gap between funds required and funds appropriated also consists out of two main sub-gaps which are firstly, the planning gap and secondly, the budget gap. The first is the difference between the funding required to meet certain objectives identified and planned and the actual planning that is completed to the extent that the development can be funded and implemented. The second is the difference between the funding required to develop the planned activities and the funding that is eventually appropriated on the budget.

143 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

What should What has What budget be planned been is eventually for and planned and made funded. Planning Gap is budgeted Budget Gap available. for

Investment Gap

Figure 11.1: Investment Gap

The difficulties to meet the investment gap are further complicated by the fact that funds that have been appropriated on the budget are often not spent, especially in the public sector. This was again mentioned in Parliament when the 2009/2010 Government Budget was tabled. This only means that the already existing budget gap gets wider and that the implementation of new projects already delayed as a result of the planning gap are delayed even longer.

11.3 DEFINING THE GAP The objective of the IWRMP is to develop a national plan that cater for, not only the successful implementation and administration of the new WRMA, but also to meet the implementation expectations with respect to the Framework for Action of the Southern African Vision for Water Life and Environment as adopted at the Second World Water Forum in 2000 and the Namibian Vision 2030. The objective of the WRMA is to ensure that the water resources of Namibia are managed, developed, used, conserved and protected in a manner that would promote and support: • equitable access for all people to safe and sufficient quantities drinking water; • harmonisation of human water needs with the water requirements of environmental ecosystems and the species that depend on them, while recognizing that the water resource quality for those ecosystems must be maintained; • promotion of the sustainable development of water resources based on an integrated water resource management plan which incorporates social, technical, economic, and environmental issues; • availability of open and transparent information about water resources to the public; • recognition of the economic value of water in the allocation of water; • development of the most cost effective solutions including conservation measures to infrastructure for the provision of water; • supporting integrated water resource management through human resources development and capacity building; 144 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

• promotion of water awareness and the participation of persons having interest in the decision-making process should form an integral part of any water resource development initiative; • consistency of water resource management decisions within the specific mandate from the Government regarding the separation of policy, regulatory and operational functions; • prevention of water pollution and the implementation of the principle that any person disposing of any effluent or waste has a duty of care to prevent pollution; • the polluter will be liable to pay all costs to clean up any intentional or accidental spills of pollutants; • taking due cognisance of international rights and obligations of Namibia in the utilisation of internationally shared water resources and the disposal of waste or effluent; • taking due cognisance of the regional diversity in water resources development and the decentralisation of responsibilities to the lowest level of Government where adequate and appropriate competency exists to manage those resources effectively. Although the outcome from this study will define these strategic objectives in far more detail and certainty, the main focus areas for developing the water sector, in terms of attempting to arrive at an investment gap, have been reduced to: • The implementation of integrated water resources management by all stakeholders • Developing an appropriate water intelligence system that will sufficiently inform decision making processes in order to ensure that the development of water supply networks is based on reliable information sets. This would include meteorological and climate forecasting systems; • Developing the necessary bulk supply infrastructure that will provide drinking water of acceptable quality to villages, towns and municipalities in Namibia as well as bulk user industries; • Developing supply infrastructure to ensure reliable supply of acceptable quality and quantity of water to rural Namibia; • Developing the necessary sanitation infrastructure to effectively process waste streams to ensure a safe and healthy living environment for Namibians as well as protecting underground water resources from being polluted; and • Participating in trans-boundary basin management activities that will ensure that Namibia will continue to have equitable access to shared water resources. 145 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

11.4 ASSESSING THE GAP In order to assess the total investment gap at this stage would be very difficult if not impossible and it is doubtful whether it will be possible to arrive at a point where the investment gap can be defined with a reasonable level of certainty. This will only be possible once detailed studies have been competed to determine the true scope of investment that will need to be made in order for Namibia to ensure that higher level objectives related to equitable access to water and sanitation can be achieved on a sustainable level. However, for the purpose of this report an attempt has been made develop an assessment framework to analyse the budget gap, if any, as well as to understand the effectiveness of budgeting for investments in the water and sanitation sector. The methodology followed to compile a baseline that can be utilised for measuring the gap in future was to obtain figures from the National Planning Commission (NPC), the DWAF and NamWater in terms of planned investment programmes up to 2015. NamWater is currently in the process of completing a comprehensive study that would enable the corporation to compile a long-term investment programme that would ensure that it will make the necessary investments in capital replacement as well as new and expanded infrastructure that will enable the bulk water provider to secure water supply to most Namibians in urban environments as well as both urban and non-urban bulk water user industries. The analysis format is based on the budget format employed by the NPC as published in the published annual development budget Medium Term Expenditure Framework of the Namibian Government. The first column in the Tables 11.1 to 11.6 below reflects the different budget votes under which expenditure has been planned for. The second column or Total Programme Budget is the total investment value of the projects planned for over the years 2007/07 to 2015/16. The fourth column reflects the actual spending during the 2006/07 financial year. Comparing the information from the 2006/06 Budget and Actual columns will provide the first glimpse into the effectiveness of the national budgeting process. Table 11.1 summarises planning information obtained from NamWater. The figures reported only reflect those for the Central-East of Namibia and draft estimations for the Central-North and Central-Namibia supply areas. Figures for other areas will become available towards the end of 2009 as these investigations by NamWater near completion. It was also not possible to obtain actual vs. budgeted figures from NamWater but based on information obtained from NamWater the investment schedules developed in the regional analyses have not been integrated into the formal budgeting process of the corporation. Table 11.2 reflects the planned budget for the DRWS in the DWAF in the MAWF up to the end of 2011/2012, which is also the end of NDP 3. This information was obtained from the MTEF Development Budget for 2008/09 to 2010/11 as published by the NPC as well as the NDP 3 document. Actual investment expenditure in Rural Water Supply for the fiscal year 2006/07 far outstripped the budgeted expenditure, N$631 million vs N$353 million. This over spending was mainly related to an unbudgeted N$267 million expended on operations. 146 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

Table 11.3 reflects the development investment programme for the provision of safe and functional sanitation to urban Namibia. Projects included are all sanitation projects listed under the Ministry of Regional, Local Government Housing and Rural Development and the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication. Of the planned expenditure of N$32 million, only N$13 million has been spend on upgrading and expanding sanitary service provision. A total of N$15.4 million was budgeted for the replacement of operational equipment of which no expenditure was recorded for the 2006/07 fiscal year. The factors leading to this situation are still to be verified but it have been a combination of under allocations to the implementing Ministries as well as the inability of the responsible Ministries to ensure that plans are implemented as planned and scheduled. In terms of the various aspects of delivering services as intended in the Water and Sanitation Policy, sanitation is seriously lagging behind in achieving targets. Tables 11.4 and Table 11.5 summarises the planned investment to support Integrated Water Resources Management as well as participating in Trans-boundary Water Resources Management activities. Table 11.6 provides an overview of the entire water sector and it is interesting to note that close to N$250 million more than what was budgeted was spend on the sector. This overspending is directly related to the activities in the Rural Water Supply sector. At first glance it would appear that budget and programme implementation happens in a fairly well- managed ways. In terms of analysing the sources of funding it would also appear from the MTEF documentation reviewed that all of the budgeted investment was met from internal sources of funding. What was not covered in the first round of assessments was the issue of what investment will be required in setting up the necessary water management authorities and structures as envisaged in the new Water Act as well as the development of appropriate information management platforms that will inform the decision making process where it comes to the implementation of IWRM in the water sector. These will be addressed once a better understanding of the institutional setup that will be required for the successful implementation of the Water and Sanitation Sector policy and Water Resources management Act has been developed. In addition to this, Local Authorities will also have to be consulted to obtain information regarding their capital or development budgets related to water and sanitation that falls outside the ambit of the MTEF. Initial indications are that Local Authorities do not have the budgetary capacity to plan major investments in these areas and will continue to rely on budget support from the Ministry of Regional Local Government, Housing and Rural Development.

11.5 CONCLUSION To draw any definite conclusions from the assessment at this stage would be premature. The first real conclusions can only be drawn once the 2009/10 MTEF is available to assess the programme implementation performance of the line Ministries responsible for delivering on WSS Policy targets. Once the strategic investment programme of NamWater has been completed, it will also then provide a much better indication as to what would be required in terms of bulk water supply investments as well as how these investment targets will be met. 147 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

Another aspect that will be investigated in more detail is the fact that it would appear from all documentation analysed that all planned projects, at least by central government, have been and will be funded from internal sources. A third issue that will be investigated in more depth is the apparent poor communication between planning, budgeting and actual expenditure. It would appear from comparing budgets to actual expenditure that there is no relationship between these two aspects. In analysing these issues, valuable insights will be gained in how long-term budgeting should be approached and how funding should be structured that would effectively support the development of the water sector in Namibia. 148 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

Table 11.1: Summary of Budgeted Bulk Water Supply Investments (N$ ‘000)

COMPOSITION OF Estimated to ACTUAL to ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE EXPENDITURE TOTAL 2006/2007 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016

Materials and Supplies ------Other Services ------Furniture and Equipment ------Operational Equipment ------Feasibility Studies 60 - - - - - 60 - - - - - Documentation and 350 - - - - 350 ------Supervision Design ------Replacement 199,341 - 480 40365 4540 21649 37650.25 20893 20974 17180 20105 15505 Construction 1,402,361 - - - 104255 74279 347305 382843 453660 1395 8624 30000 Retention Fees ------Operational Expenditure ------

Total Expenditure 1,602,112 - 480 40365 108795 96278 385015.25 403736 474634 18575 28729 45505

SOURCES OF FUNDING A1 - INTERNAL FUNDING 1,602,112 - 480 40365 108795 96278 385015.25 403736 474634 18575 28729 45505 A2 - EXTERNAL FUNDING ------

Total Funding 1,602,112 - 480 40365 108795 96278 385015.25 403736 474634 18575 28729 45505 149 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

Table 11.2: Summary of Budgeted Rural Water Supply Investments (N$ ‘000)

COMPOSITION OF Estimated to ACTUAL to ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE EXPENDITURE TOTAL 2006/2007 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 BALANCE

Materials and Supplies 12,200 - - - 3,050 4,050 5,050 - - - - - 50

Other Services 18,600 - - - 6,300 6,100 6,100 - - - - - 100

Furniture and Equipment 400 - - - 100 100 100 - - - - - 100

Operational Equipment 200 - - - 50 50 50 - - - - - 50

Feasibility Studies 15,300 4,291 - - 3,200 3,700 5,900 - - - - - 2,500

Documentation and 65,777 40,081 40,081 6,000 4,490 4,900 6,040 - - - - - 4,266 Supervision

Design 7,210 - - - 3,160 1,900 2,050 - - - - - 100

Replacement ------

Construction 662,390 308,672 312,945 54,500 56,960 67,000 75,855 - - - - - 95,130

Retention Fees 16,065 - 11,356 - 1,000 1,500 1,000 - - - - - 1,209

Operational Expenditure 370,205 - 267,205 - 20,560 30,000 24,000 - - - - - 28,440

Total Expenditure 1,168,347 353,044 631,587 60,500 98,870 119,300 126,145 - - - - - 131,945

SOURCES OF FUNDING

A1 - INTERNAL FUNDING 1,168,347 353,044 631,587 60,500 98,870 119,300 126,145 - - - - - 131,945

A2 - EXTERNAL FUNDING

Total Funding 1,168,347 353,044 631,587 60,500 98,870 119,300 126,145 - - - - - 131,945 150 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

Table 11.3: Summary of Budgeted Investments in Sanitation Infrastructure (N$ ‘000)

COMPOSITION OF Estimated to ACTUAL to ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE EXPENDITURE TOTAL 2006/2007 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 BALANCE

Materials & Supplies ------

Other Services ------

Furniture & Equipment ------

Operational Equipment - 15,400 ------

Feasibility Studies 333 1,500 - - 333 ------

Documentation and Supervision 6,027 - 2,737 650 570 570 600 - - - - - 900

Design ------

Replacement ------

Construction 455,710 15,000 8,321 5,560 129,517 155,836 148,781 - - - - - 7,695

Retention Fees 3,554 - 2,069 290 260 260 270 - - - - - 405

Operational Expenditure ------

Total Expenditure 465,624 31,900 13,127 6,500 130,680 156,666 149,651 - - - - - 9,000

SOURCES OF FUNDING

A1 - INTERNAL FUNDING 465,624 31,900 13,127 6,500 130,680 156,666 149,651 - - - - - 9,000

A2 - EXTERNAL FUNDING ------

Total Funding 465,624 31,900 13,127 6,500 130,680 156,666 149,651 - - - - - 9,000 151 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

Table 11.4: Summary of Budgeted Investments in Integrated Water Resources Management (N$ ‘000)

COMPOSITION OF Estimated to ACTUAL to ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE EXPENDITURE TOTAL 2006/2007 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 BALANCE

Materials & Supplies 2,765 330 455 30 750 650 580 - - - - - 300

Other Services 32,341 840 1,451 1,020 8,870 3,950 2,850 - - - - - 14,200

Furniture & Equipment 1,268 50 68 - 300 300 300 - - - - - 300

Operational Equipment 8,121 200 271 - 1,700 2,700 2,900 - - - - - 550

Feasibility Studies 21,823 2,480 4,423 2,150 6,550 5,400 2,500 - - - - - 800

Documentation and Supervision 140 - - - 50 50 40 ------

Design 860 - - - 260 200 200 - - - - - 200

Replacement ------

Construction 59,500 2,495 3,950 600 16,550 18,800 12,400 - - - - - 7,200

Retention Fees ------

Operational Expenditure ------

Total Expenditure 126,818 6,395 10,618 3,800 35,030 32,050 21,770 - - - - - 23,550

SOURCES OF FUNDING

A1 - INTERNAL FUNDING 126,818 6,395 10,618 3,800 35,030 32,050 21,770 - - - - - 23,550

A2 - EXTERNAL FUNDING ------

Total Funding 126,818 6,395 10,618 3,800 35,030 32,050 21,770 - - - - - 23,550

152 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

Table 11.5: Summary of Budgeted Expenditure for Trans-boundary Water Resources Management Activities (N$ ‘000)

TOTAL Programme Budgeted to Actual to Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted COMPOSITION OF EXPENDITURE Budget 2006/2007 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 BALANCE

Materials & Supplies 290 40 40 20 70 70 70 - - - - - 20

Other Services 1,710 360 360 180 330 330 330 - - - - - 180

Furniture & Equipment 200 100 100 20 20 20 20 - - - - - 20

Operational Equipment 4,850 175 175 125 800 1,300 950 - - - - - 1,500

Feasibility Studies 3,630 875 875 555 300 300 300 - - - - - 1,300

Documentation and Supervision ------

Design ------

Replacement ------

Construction 20,320 300 300 100 5,480 4,980 5,480 - - - - - 3,980

Retention Fees ------

Operational Expenditure ------

Total Expenditure 31,000 1,850 1,850 1,000 7,000 7,000 7,150 - - - - - 7,000

SOURCES OF FUNDING

A1 - INTERNAL FUNDING 31,000 1,850 1,850 1,000 7,000 7,000 7,150 - - - - - 7,000 A2 - EXTERNAL FUNDING ------

Total Funding 31,000 1,850 1,850 1,000 7,000 7,000 7,150 - - - - - 7,000

153 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Investment in Water Services

Table 11.6: Summary of Budgeted Water Sector Development Investments (N$ ‘000)

TOTAL Programme Budgeted to Actual to Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted Budgeted COMPOSITION OF EXPENDITURE Budget 2006/2007 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 BALANCE Materials & Supplies 22,255 370 495 50 4,870 9,770 6,700 - - - - - 370 Other Services 52,651 1,200 1,811 1,200 15,500 10,380 9,280 - - - - - 14,480 Furniture & Equipment 5,868 150 168 20 1,420 2,420 1,420 - - - - - 420 Operational Equipment 22,993 15,775 446 125 5,225 9,890 5,207 - - - - - 2,100 Feasibility Studies 41,146 10,866 5,298 2,705 10,383 9,400 8,760 - - - - - 4,600 Documentation and Supervision 72,294 40,081 42,818 6,650 5,110 5,870 6,680 - - - - - 5,166 Design 8,070 - - - 3,420 2,100 2,250 - - - - - 300 Replacement 199,341 - 480 40,365 4,540 21,649 37,650 20,893 20,974 17,180 20,105 15,505 - Construction 2,600,281 339,691 325,516 60,760 312,762 320,895 589,821 382,843 453,660 1,395 8,624 30,000 114,005 Retention Fees 19,619 - 13,425 290 1,260 1,760 1,270 - - - - - 1,614 Operational Expenditure 370,205 - 267,205 - 20,560 30,000 24,000 - - - - - 28,440

Total Expenditure 3,414,723 408,133 657,662 112,165 385,050 424,134 693,038 403,736 474,634 18,575 28,729 45,505 171,495

SOURCES OF FUNDING A1 - INTERNAL FUNDING 3,414,723 408,133 657,662 112,165 385,050 424,134 693,038 403,736 474,634 18,575 28,729 45,505 171,495 A2 - EXTERNAL FUNDING ------

Total Funding 3,414,723 408,133 657,662 112,165 385,050 424,134 693,038 403,736 474,634 18,575 28,729 45,505 171,495

154 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Conclusions

12 CONCLUSION

From the assessment of the existing situation it is clear that most of the policies required to develop an IWRMP for Namibia are in place and that the water legislation to support the implementation of the policies has been promulgated. However, the Water Resources Management Act (WRMA) is at the moment under revision to improve the provisions that would ultimately also support the development end execution of the IWRM plan. Further work is also required to develop the Regulations in terms of the WRMA. The practical implementation of the IWRMP will depend on the effectiveness of the institutional arrangements in place, the human capacity of those institutions and the financial resources made available, but at the moment there are uncertainties regarding the proposed institutional arrangements, which need to be resolved. The WRMA does not make provision for the existence of the DWAF, nor abolishes the DWAF, and the creation of the proposed Water Resources Management Agency (WMA) has as yet not been achieved. It is also very clear from the draft revised WRMA that there will be a number of institutions such as an Advisory Council, a Water Regulator and a Water Tribunal established that will report directly to the Minister to implement the WRMA. If this must be understood as that the Minister will not have the benefit of technical advice from either the DWAF or the proposed WMA, then it will certainly not possible for the Minister to meet this responsibility, unless the Minister receives technical support from an institution such as the DWAF or the proposed WMA. It is also not clear to what extent the DWAF will remain as a competently functioning unit in the Public Service, if and when the WRMA is established. The number of people available to serve in the water sector is limited and Namibia even an institution like NamWater, that is in a position to pay better salaries than the Public Service, finds it difficult to retain the services of young professionals. The concept that basin management committees will be able to contribute constructively to integrated water resources management is sound in theory, but basically in its infancy, and it is already clear that those institution will demand a lot of support from the DWAF/WRMA in future and that such technical and financial support is limited and to a large extent dependent on external funding to maintain momentum. The implementation of the bulk water supply infrastructure development plans will to a large extent remain the responsibility of NamWater and as far as rural water supply and sanitation infrastructure development is concerned, the DWAF will still play a major role. These developments will take place within the framework of the basic national water master planning in place and although the WRMA makes provision that basin management institutions must prepare water development plans, it is clear that not all basins will immediately have institutions that can do this work. The basin plans should also be guided by the existing national master planning that has been under implementation for more than 40 years and most probably not the other way round as perceived by many. The hard facts are that basin wide and national water planning will still be done at the national level for many years to come. 155 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Conclusions

The implementation of water management activities at the community level should therefore receive priority attention, because Namibia is an arid country with extremely scarce and vulnerable water resources. The conservation of water resources, sustainable use, water demand management, the prevention of pollution, the maintenance of aquatic ecosystems, sustainable development, waste management, the safe and hygienic use of water and awareness training are important aspects which require community involvement and participation. The status of baseline data for climate, surface water resources and groundwater is basically sound and probably some of the best in Southern Africa, considering the length of records and the availability of data. The maintenance or improvement of this relatively favourable situation will require adequate funding for monitoring, data capture and management issues. A wealth of knowledge exists about the climate, rainfall, runoff, surface and groundwater resources due to knowledge which have been gathered over more than a hundred years of measurements, investigations and research by scientists and engineers. Namibia has been able to meet the growing demand for water to sustain development through innovation and exceptional ingenuity. There is no reason to believe that this could not be maintained with the proper development of human resources and adequate financial investments. The country has huge body of experience in water awareness training, water demand management, community participation an acute awareness of the need to be on top of technological developments to maintain access to adequate supplies of water of an acceptable quality for different kinds of uses. Some of the issues emanating from this report that needs to be taken up in the IWRM are the following: • Finalize the revised Water Resources Management Act (WRMA); • Formulate the Regulations in terms of the WRMA; • Revise the institutional structure in the DWAF to ensure that the establishment can to cope with the additional responsibilities created in terms of the WRMA; • Introduce a formal bursary scheme dedicated to educate young people to become professionals in water sciences, engineering and technology; • Build capacity and employ the required staff with the academic and technical capacity to be trained to implement the WRMA and the IWRMP; • Bring the WRMA into force as capacity to implement the Act is developed; • Enact the establishment of the Water Advisory Council, because this forum is critical for stakeholder participation in water management; • Enact the establishment of the Regulator to improve water and sanitation service delivery and cost recovery; • Encourage the establishment of water area management institutions to get a grip on local water management activities; 156 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation Conclusions

• Incorporate an acceptable strategy in the IWRMP to accommodate the development of infrastructure for vital water supply and sanitation service delivery by various actors such as NamWater, Regional and Local Authorities, the DWAF and the private sector; • Prepare implementation plans to cover strategies for: - stakeholder engagement and participation, - communication with stakeholders about water issues, - national water demand management, - flood and drought management, - data acquisition and management, - access to internationally shared water resources, - capital investments to fund water development projects, - water environment management, - the harmonization of all the formal Government policies to be in line with the IWRMP. The development and implementation of an integrated water resources management plan to maintain the existing momentum towards Vision 2030 is a major challenge and must also be tailored to mobilize human resources, technology and financial support to achieve this goal.

157 IWRM PLAN FOR NAMIBIA Review and Assessment of Existing Situation References

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