The Bethany brackish groundwater desalination plant in the //Kharas region of Namibia has officially been commissioned.
The state-owned Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) inaugurated the facility as part of its goal of achieving drinking water coverage by 2030. Currently, the southern African country has a drinking water coverage rate of about 85%, according to the Namibian Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform.
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Features of the facility
The development is located 130 kilometres west of Keetmanshoop, in the //Kharas region. The plant has a capacity of 487 m3 of drinking water per day and in addition to desalination equipment, including membrane technology, the new plant has equipment that can operate even during power cuts thanks to solar panels.
This will enable the Bethany water desalination plant to produce 487 m3 of drinking water per day for the inhabitants of the target village until 2037. The objective is to preserve the health of the population. Most brackish water contains between 1 and 10 grams of salts per litre.
NamWater invested about US $2.3M in building the desalination plant. The state-owned company was supported in the implementation of this project by the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN), the Adaptation Fund (AF) and the Multilateral Environmental Agreements Division of the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.