This report summarises the results of the Namibia study of water use and demand in the Namibian
part of the Cubango Okavango River Basin (CORB). Similar reports are being prepared for Angola and
Botswana. The three country reports will be synthesised into a basin wide report on water use and
demand.
The terms of reference for the country study list the following tasks:
1. Assemble national water use data in a common basin-wide database; ensure proper
documentation of the water use database;
2. Collect recent literature and (inter)national data sources on domestic water use, industrial
water use, irrigation and associated water use in agriculture (in consultation with the
agricultural specialist), and water use for environment and tourist industry in the riparian
countries;
3. Work out methodologies to distribute national statistical information over the Namibia part
of the CORB and to deal with critical data gaps;
4. Prepare data products to present assessment results in tabular, graphical, and georeferenced
form;
5. Prepare a detailed technical documentation of the applied methodology, and a national
report with the results of the water use assessment for the Namibia part of the CORB;
The work is part of the OKACOM-FAO CORB Water Audit (CORBWA) project. The CORB has an
“active” part and a “non-active” part. The active part constitutes the relatively narrow catchment
area along the actual river, with its two principal tributaries, and around its delta, while the nonactive
part comprises areas in Botswana and Namibia where associated groundwater resources and
flows are found, including fossil aquifers (i.e. aquifers no longer being recharged). OKACOM has
officially adopted a basin boundary that comprises the active catchment area as well as some, but
not all, of the non-active part of the basin. Figure 1 below, shows the officially adopted basin
boundary as well as those parts of the non-active basin that are not included within the official basin
area (marked as cross-hatched areas).
For Namibia, only relatively small parts in the southeast of its portion of the non-active basin, along
the border to Botswana -- essentially the Rietfontein Block area -- have not been included within the
official CORB boundary. The main reason for the exclusion of these parts is that the ephemeral
Rietfontein and Chapman’s rivers draining the Rietfontein Block area and flowing in an eastern
direction into Botswana, “discharge” (if and when they flow) into the saltpans of the central
Kalahari, downstream of the Okavango Delta, unlike the Omiramba Otjozondju, Eiseb and Epukiro
(also ephemeral rivers) further north, which “discharge” (if and when they flow) into the Delta and
therefore included in the official CORB area.