By: Felix Njini
Published: 14 Dec 07 - 0:00
Namibian water utility NamWater and French uranium company UraMin are to construct a $40-million seawater intake and brine disposal facility, which is expected to support a water-desalination plant to be built in the coastal town of Swakopmund.
UraMin, which is owned by French nuclear giant Areva, is developing Namibia’s third uranium mine, Trekkopje.
The desalination plant is to provide water to the Trekkopje mine and to residents in Erongo, an arid district.
The preferred site for the desalination plant is about 3 km north of Wlotskasbaken.
Both firms say that the final site selection is subject to the conclusion of a comprehensive social- and environmental-impact study and regulatory approval.
The sea-water intake and brine disposal system will be capable of supporting the production of 45-million cubic metres of desalinated water annually, of which 25-million cubic metres is to be supplied to NamWater’s customers.
NamWater says that this will substantially improve the sus- tainability of water supply in the Erongo region, while relieving pressure on existing groundwater sources.
“The facility will supply water to UraMin’s proposed Trek-kopje mine as well as to Nam-Water’s clients in the coastal areas of Namibia,” NamWater CE Vaino Shivute says.
The Erongo region consumes about 12-million cubic metres annually, while Walvis Bay, which is also in the same region, consumes 4,3-million cubic metres.
Rössing uranium mine, which has been operational for the past three decades, guzzles 3,3-mil- lion cubic metres and Swakop-mund another 3,3-million cubic metres.
“This indicates that the planned facility will be capable of supporting substantial economic growth in the region,” Shivute says.
UraMin will be responsible for the management of the construction of the facility, while the cost of the facility and of the infrastructure required to supply electrical power to the site will be shared between the two companies.
Construction and engineering giant Murray & Roberts has been awarded the contract to construct the sea-water intake and brine disposal facility.
Construction is expected to start as soon as regulatory approvals have been obtained, with completion expected in early 2009.
NamWater says that it has successfully started to produce high-quality desalinated sea water at its pilot plant, in Swakopmund. This was preceded by an extensive testing programme on various pretreatment processes to ensure that the quality of the raw sea water could be improved to the extent that it could be used in a reverse-osmosis desalina- tion process without the fear of clogging up the membranes with dissolved organic matter.
“NamWater is now confident that Namibia’s sea water can be effectively and economically desali- nated on a large scale,” Shivute says.
Forsys Metals Corporation was in June granted permission by the Namibian government to construct its own desalination plant to supply its Valencia uranium project, which is expected to come on stream in 2009.
“The Trekkopje project will make a significant social and economic contribution to the communities around it, and the desalination plant, in particular, by facilitating the provision of significant volumes of water, will provide further impetus to the sustainable development of the whole western coastal region,” says UraMin Namibia MD Bert Leathley
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