Water utility, NamWater, is planning to construct two water plants in the south of the country at Bethanie and Grunau for an undisclosed amount.
The water utility caused a stir last week when it placed notices in newspapers announcing that it was planning to build water desalination plants at Bethanie and Grunau.
Desalination plants are mostly built near the sea.
NamWater spokesperson, Johannes Shigwedha, however said the adverts were ‘wrongly’ placed.
“Those adverts were wrongly placed and I have given instructions for them to be cancelled until further notice. If at all a plant has to be built in one of the towns using water from the boreholes, it is called a reverse osmosis plant,” he said.
Osmosis is a natural process, where two solutions with different concentrations of a solute are separated by a semipermeable membrane. The solvent has a tendency to move from low to high solute concentrations for chemical potential equilibration. Around the world, household drinking water purification systems, including a reverse osmosis step, are commonly used for improving water for drinking and cooking.
According to Fitch Ratings, NamWater’s infrastructure master plan for 2017-2019, is expected to cost N$1, 2 billion of which N$100 million will be funded by end users.
The remaining portion is expected to be funded by the drawdown of short-term investments and funds from operations.