Namibia

December 2006 -The Government of Namibia received a €498,000 grant to support the formulation of the national IWRM plan for the sustainable management of water resources. The project aims at enabling Namibia to achieve the sustainable management of water resource for the purpose of economic development, improved social well-being and protection of the environment.

Photo courtesy of Nasa

Background: The City of Windhoek (CoW) is faced with steady demographie growth, and growing informai settlements. The Municipality, which encompasses 326,000 inhabitants, is located in a semi­ arid area  with annual  rainfall averaging  370mm only and scarce surface  water and  groundwater resources. Windhoek's main water resource is transferred over several hundreds of kilometres from the Northern part of Namibia. Climate change is anticipated to result in higher temperatures, increased evaporation, and rainfall intensity across Namibia.

December 2009 - the Executive Secretariat of the Sahara-Sahel Observatory (OSS) received a €1.2 million grant to finance the integrated and concerted water resources management of the aquifer systems of Iullemeden, Taoudeni/Tanezrouft and the Niger River.  The objective of the project is to significantly improve the concerted and sustainable management of water resources of transboundary aquifer systems and the Niger River, thereby improving the living conditions and access to water by the 25 million inhabitants living in the project area.

Photo courtesy of Nasa