NamWater’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abraham Nehemiah has called on local companies to start manufacturing chlorine, used in the treatment of water.

Nehemia during a stakeholders consultative meeting at Keetmanshoop in the //Kharas Region on Thursday noted that the cost of supplying water is very high, as is purchasing chlorine abroad, while the increase in electricity tariffs continuously makes their job difficult.

“We suffered when COVID-19 started as borders were closed and we could not import chlorine. NamWater is still struggling to find a local producer of chlorine used to treat water but if there is a Namibian company willing to start producing chlorine, we are going to buy from them,” he said.

Nehemia stated that water tariffs have not increased in a long time while the cost of chlorine and the electricity tariff from NamPower is constantly increasing.

‘This is causing a bigger issue for us when it comes to doing our job. Water processing would be cheaper and it would help in cutting costs if there could be a local producer for chlorine.”

Nehemia further revealed that for the past financial year, the water utility made N.dollars 2.1 billion in revenue, while their operational expenses totalled N.dollars 1.9 billion.

Being dependent on tariffs is not sustainable for Namwater, which is looking at ways to optimise resource utilisation.

“Alternative power supply is something Namwater is looking at, but we will have to first engage the Electricity control board as there are procedures that need to be followed if one wants to use solar energy to power themselves. We are planning to install solar panels over the water at the Neckartal dam, which will also help to reduce water lost through evaporation,” he said.

Namwater currently has 823 boreholes, 422 kilometres of canals, 19 dams and 17 treatment plants countrywide, supplying water to the nation.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency