The City of Windhoek (CoW) has received a non-repayable grant from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) Bank to the tune of N.dollars 10.96 million that will be used to expand the Gammams Waste Water Treatment Plant in Katutura.

CoW spokesperson, Lydia Amutenya said in a media release on Friday that Council approved the deal during its ordinary meeting held this week.

She said the Gammams Waste Water Treatment Plant, the main treatment facility for waste water generated in the Windhoek basin located at Goreangab Dam, was constructed and completed in 1961, and it was initially designed for a treatment capacity of 28 000 cubic meters a day. However, the capacity has now been exceeded 50 000 cubic meters per day during peak time. Therefore, there is a need for expansion or upgrade to accommodate current demand and future development within its catchment area.

“The design and development of waste water treatment plants are a specialised field and development projects of this nature are limited regionally (SADC and in Africa). Equally, the associated international procurement process for the wastewater treatment plant projects is also specialised and the relevant procurement expertise is required,” said Amutenya.

She added that to ensure that these expert services are available to the City of Windhoek for the duration of the project, the financiers proposed supporting CoW’s project implementation unit through grant financing to procure the services and complement the existing expertise in the unit.

“It should be noted that the grant from KfW is a non-repayable grant to the City of Windhoek for experts’ services within a framework of the project to securing Windhoek water supply. Ministerial approval will be obtained in terms of section 30 of the Local Authorities Act No. 23 of 1992 as amended, for the grant financing from KfW Bank before signing the agreement,” stated Amutenya.

Source: Namibia Press Agency