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| Pressure from the aquifer means the water is cheap to extract |
A newly
discovered water source in Namibia could have a major impact on development in
the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa.
Estimates
suggest the aquifer could supply the north of the country for 400 years at
current rates of consumption.
Scientists
say the water is up to 10,000 years old but is cleaner to drink than many
modern sources.
However,
there are concerns that unauthorised drilling could threaten the new supply.
Huge
resource
For the
people of northern Namibia water is something that they either have too much of
or too little.
The 800,000
people who live in the area depend for their drinking water on a 40-year-old
canal that brings the scarce resource across the border from Angola.
Over the
past decade the Namibian government have been trying to tackle the lack of a
sustainable supply in partnership with researchers from Germany and other EU
countries.
They have
now identified a new aquifer called Ohangwena II, which flows under the
boundary between Angola and Namibia.
On the Namibian
side of the border it covers an area roughly 70 km by 40 km (43 miles by 25
miles).
According
to project manager Martin Quinger, from the German federal institute for
geoscience and natural resources (BGR), it's a substantial body of water.
"The
amount of stored water would equal the current supply of this area in northern
Namibia for 400 years, which has about 40 percent of the nation's
population."
"What
we are aiming at is a sustainable water supply so we only extract the amount of
water that is being recharged.
"What
we can say is that the huge amount of stored water is will always be enough for
a back up for an area that is currently supplied only by surface water."
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| Test drilling on the new aquifer |
This region
is dependent on two rivers for its water supply. But this has restricted
agricultural development to areas close to these water sources. Mr Quinger says
that the new aquifer has great potential to change the nature of farming in the
area.
"For
the rural water supply the water will be well suited for irrigation and stock
watering, the possibilities that we open with this alternative resource are
quite massive." he explains.
As well as
providing a new source for agriculture in a region the aquifer will augment
existing potable supplies. Martin Quinger says the discovery may be up to
10,000 years old but it is still good to drink.
"If
the water [has spent] 10,000 years underground, it means it was recharged at a
time when environmental pollution was not yet an issue, so on average it can be
a lot better than water that infiltrates in cycles of months or years."
Dangerous
drilling
The natural
pressure that the water is under means that it is easy and cheap to extract.
But because a smaller salty aquifer sits on top of the new find it raises the
possibility that unauthorised drilling could threaten the quality of the water.
Martin
Quinger says that random drilling into the aquifer could be dangerous.
"If
people don't comply with our technical recommendations they might create a
hydraulic shortcut between the two aquifers which might lead to the salty water
from the upper one contaminating the deep one or vice versa."
One of the
biggest advantages of the new aquifer could be in helping people cope with
climate change.
The
researchers estimate that it could act as a natural buffer for up to 15 years
of drought.
As well as
identifying the new water source a key aim for the researchers involved is to
develop the capacity among young Namibians to manage their country's water
resources before the funding from the EU runs out.
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