DEVELOPMENT-NAMIBIA: Interest in Uranium Powers Desalination Plans
By Nhamoinesu Mseyamwa
WINDHOEK, Oct 29 (IPS) - Efforts to build Namibia's first large-scale desalination plant are gaining momentum. The project is a joint undertaking of the Namibian Water Corporation (NamWater), a government owned utility, and mining company UraMin Inc.
Capable of producing more than 50 million cubic metres of potable water per year, the facility will come with a price tag of 140 million dollars. It is to be located near the coastal town of Swakopmund which it will serve, along with Walvis Bay; both communities are in the Erongo region -- a large but sparsely populated area. The plant will also supply local uranium mines.
According to NamWater, Erongo currently consumes about 12 million cubic metres of water annually, with Walvis Bay accounting for 4.3 million cubic metres of this total, Rio Tinto's Rössing Uranium mine 3.3 million cubic metres, and Swakopmund three million cubic metres.
Most of the water is sourced from underground aquifers.
"The establishment of a desalination plant with a capacity of 50 million cubic metres per annum means that our bulk water supply to the coast will increase four-fold," says Vaino Shivute, chief executive officer of NamWater, which has indicated it will foot half the bill for the plant. Vaino adds that his organisation has already begun to seek international funding for the project.
UraMin's interest in building the plant stems from its development of Namibia's third major uranium mine at Trekkopje, near Swakopmund. It is expected that the new mine will require about 20 million cubic metres of water annually when it comes on line early in 2009.
Plans for a desalination plant were initially unveiled in 1998, when NamWater was seeking to meet a growing demand for water in the coastal regions of Namibia.
Five years later, however, the initiative was shelved. This followed a fraught tender process in which NamWater was unsuccessfully sued by one of the companies bidding for the plant contract, on the grounds that its tender was more cost-effective. In another twist, the utility failed to sign a contract with Weir-Envig, the firm chosen to build the plant, as the two parties could not agree on many issues.
In addition, there was a sharp reduction in consumption in areas the plant was intended to service. It was further discovered that the aquifers in the region held far more water than was previously believed.
"Usage had also dropped as measures to provide purified sewage water to residents for garden irrigation come into play. The region's pilchard canning industry, once a major water consumer, had been forced to downsize in the face of diminishing quotas, further reducing demand," Timothy Waineki of the Erongo Regional Council told IPS. There were further concerns that the desalinated water would be too expensive for coastal residents, he said.
This time around, things appear to be moving more smoothly with the project, which NamWater says is in line with sustainable development objectives.
However, at a public meeting held in Swakopmund in August to discuss the possible environmental effects of the initiative, residents expressed concern about aesthetic aspects of the plant. They fear it could be an eyesore for people driving between Swakopmund and Henties Bay to the north.
Alex du Plessis -- chairman of Turgis Consulting, the company tasked with carrying out the environmental impact assessment study for the plant -- remains optimistic about public attitudes towards it. "There have been proposals to build desalination plants in the past, but nothing has come of them; our project isn't just a pipe dream and we are enjoying a lot of support from the communities."
The facility will consist of two parallel pipelines running to and from the sea, a sump on the beach to ensure a steady stream of water, and the desalination plant itself -- which will be built mostly underground about two kilometres from the coastline.
NamWater is also planning a new, larger pipeline from the desalination plant to Swakopmund and a new reservoir that will mix underground water and desalinated water with the aim of improving overall quality.
Uranium prices have been on a roller coaster ride in recent years, from ten dollars per pound in 2003 to more than 130 dollars in June this year. The price was about 80 dollars a pound at the time of writing.
However, rising oil prices and concerns about global warming are prompting renewed interest in uranium, which is the standard fuel used in nuclear reactors.
Favourable prices caused Rössing Uranium, the country’s oldest uranium mine located north-east of Swakopmund, to announce last year at its 30th anniversary celebrations that it had put aside plans to close down.
And at the beginning of this year, the Perth-based Paladin Resources announced its intention to go ahead with Namibia’s second uranium mine -- the Langer Heinrich project.
Yet another mine, the Toronto-based Forsys Metals' Valencia project, which is also in the country’s coastal desert, is being fast tracked for production in early 2009, and will require water for trial mining by the end of 2008.
Duane Parnham, chairman of Forsys Metals, is hoping that the NamWater pipeline to the Rössing mine can be extended to the Valencia deposit, should it become a viable concern.
Most, if not all, of Namibia's uranium deposits are found in the Namib Desert where the cost of water is high, something that can make mine operations uneconomic. Water is used in the extraction of uranium from ore.
"Water consumption is an important design consideration for the Trekkopje project," says Ian Stalker, chief executive officer of UraMin. "The establishment of the Trekkopje mine will hasten the implementation of sea water desalination, which is an option for water supply that NamWater has been researching for a number of years."
NamWater says it is currently investigating the capacity of its existing pipeline network to manage the predicted upswing in water demand due to the boom in mining activities in the region.
It is expected that a provisional timetable for tenders for the desalination plant will be made available next month, while the contract is to be awarded by the end of April 2008.
The plant is expected to be operational towards the end of next year. (END/2007)
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