Namibia Water Discovery May Supply 40% of Nation, Namibian Says

Fresh water from a newly discovered aquifer in northern Namibia may be vast enough to supply 40 percent of the population for hundreds of years, the Namibian reported, citing officials.

The discovery of the aquifer about 300 meters (980 feet) underground from Eenhana to Okongo and stretching from Okankolo into southern Angola was the result of a 5-year project between the agricultural and water ministry, state-owned Namibia Water Corp. Ltd. and the German federal institute of geosciences and natural resources, the Windhoek-based newspaper said today.

“With so much water, you can envisage a much bigger scale for irrigation, you can take the stress off more industrial areas, it can make a major change,” project manager and hydrologist Martin Quigner told the paper. “The more we drilled, the more fresh water we found.”

Areva SA (AREVA) opened the southern African country’s first desalination plant two years ago. Water and power demand has increased in Namibia following a boom in uranium exploration and mining.

To contact the reporter on this story: Randall Hackley in Zurich at rhackley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Randall Hackley at rhackley@bloomberg.net