CuveWaters' response to the Namibian Sanitation Strategy - Sanitation and Waste Water Re-Use approved

Since independence, Namibia achieved serious progress in improving the access to drinking water supply, but sanitation remains as a huge challenge. In rural areas less than 13% and in urban areas only about 60% of the population have access to improved sanitation. In other words, approximately 1.4 million from 2 million inhabitants of Namibia are lacking in basic sanitation services. Against this background, the Namibian government developed the National Sanitation Strategy (2010/2011-2014/2015). It aims at a reliable achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the Namibian Vision 2030 and therefore presents the basic development plan for the sanitation sector. It is noted that "benefits of the provision of sanitation are promoted as a public good and include health, environment, energy generation (biogas) and food production (waste water reuse and treated excreta reuse)". With the combination of wastewater management with water reuse, energy generation and fertilizer recovery Namibia takes – alongside the North African countries Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria – a leading position in Africa.

The National Strategy suggests improved sanitation technologies for urban areas, including flush toilets in combination with vacuum technology for the sewage. For implementation, a community-based approach and cross-sectoral procedures are recommended. These involve urban planning, domestic water services, health sector and other administrative organizations. Special attention is paid behavioural changes in hygiene issues to prevent infections. Learning from former failures in sanitation projects, the National Sanitation Strategy notes the necessity of “more affordable solutions to facilitate increased access to sanitation for all and drastically reduce open defecation.” The strategy claims for further research and development, inter alia, in order to “develop systems for difficult environmental circumstances (flooded areas)” and “test all new imported sanitation systems through pilot projects”.

These challenges and recommendations of the National Sanitation Strategy will be included into the sanitation concept as a part of the project of CuveWaters. Thus, it offers an important contribution to the current policy in Namibia as it provides in addition to water reuse, energy and fertilizer recovery also water for irrigation agriculture. CuveWaters’ project design also considers dynamic developments in urban settlements, which range from informal settlement and deprived areas to formalised areas with simple houses and a minimum infrastructure standard to planned urban development. The sanitation concept has to be adaptable to such transitions. For Outapi different options for improving sanitation will be developed and implemented – in order to ensure the adaptability of infrastructure to urban transformations: sanitary installations in private houses (individual solutions), sanitary facilities for small neighbourhoods in informal settlements (cluster solution), and the concept of communal sanitation house in a crowded market location (community solution). Connecting these sanitation facilities to wastewater processing facilities, re-use of water (incl. nutrients) is a great opportunity for the urban community in gaining new options for regional development, poverty reduction and job creation. With CuveWaters’ support of gardening initiatives, a sustainable way for improving people’s livelihood is intended.