Neckartal is spilling over while Windhoek’s dams run low
Neckartal Dam outside Keetmanshoop has overflowed twice in two years.
It holds 857 million cubic metres, while the three dams that supply Windhoek hold about 18% of that.
Its 5 000-hectare irrigation scheme is undeveloped, and the government is now preparing the land for farmers and investors. In the same week the Neckartal Dam spilled over, Windhoek’s supply dams stood at 57.7%, with the Omatako Dam at 12.7%.
On paper, Namibia is not short of water. BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, ranks Namibia fifth out of 14 southern African markets for natural water resources in its October 2026 report, ahead of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
The difficulty is where that water falls and where it flows to.
Of every 100 litres of rain that fall in Namibia, about 83 litres are lost to evaporation, roughly 14 litres are taken up by plants and soil, about two litres run off into rivers, and only one litre seeps down to recharge the groundwater.
Our only perennial rivers run along our borders, so we have stored water where it could be caught, in the south and the far north, while the economy has grown in the centre and on the coast.
Even at the borders we leave water unclaimed: Of the 189 million cubic metres a year our agreement with Angola allows from the Kunene, we draw about 33%.
The national water plan estimates that a cubic metre used to irrigate commercial crops adds about 55 cents to the economy against N$127 in mining and N$552 in services, yet it projects irrigation rising from 40% of demand to 64% by 2030.
Food security is no luxury, but that split was never openly decided; it was inherited from older plans.
New demand is coming from industry, led by mining. Koryx Copper’s Haib project near Noordoewer will need about 20 million cubic metres a year, the full output of the N$2.1 billion Erongo Sunam desalination plant due in 2028.
Those who can finance their own source are buying independence from the rains, while towns, smaller farms and households cannot do the same.
The financial trend is really the most urgent matter. NamWater’s trade debtors rose from N$1.74 billion in March 2023 to N$2.8 billion by November 2025, 33% of it owed by town councils.
Bulk tariffs have not moved in six years except for mines, and planned capital spending of N$1.6 billion to 2030 is less than 25% of the N$7 billion cost of the Kavango Link alone.
Investors will finance water in Namibia, but not through a utility that cannot collect what it is owed.
Five measures would help, and none of them require a new institution.
- Make large industrial users pay the full cost of new supply. That tariff income should be ring-fenced for building new sources, while households keep a protected lifeline tariff.
- Build one water network along the coast. Private desalination plants should feed a publicly owned carrier with open access, so spare capacity reaches nearby towns.
- Put Neckartal to work through concessions. Offer the state’s 19 000 hectares and a defined water entitlement to investors on long concessions, tied to high-value crops and local jobs.
- Collect council arrears at source. Offset what councils owe NamWater against their central transfers, and move persistent defaulters to prepaid bulk metering.
- Use our full Kunene allocation and test the Kavango before choosing the next major source. An independent audit of the Kavango should settle the choice between the Kavango Link and inland desalination in 2027, while the dams still hold water.
None of this criticises NamWater, which has kept our taps running through every drought.
A country that can fill its largest dam to overflowing has not run out of water.
It has postponed three decisions: where water should go, who should pay for it, and who should own the pipes. The old advice still holds: Dig the well before you run out.
This year the rains have given us the water and the time to do so.
– Jason Kasuto is the managing director of Monasa Advisory & Associates, a Namibian transaction advisory firm working across capital markets, research and development finance.
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