Dam figure comparison 2018/2019

18 Jan 2019

The first half of the rainy season is officially over and luckily the Von Bach Dam received substantial inflow on the last day of 2018 and the first few days of 2019. The level rose from 41.5% of the dam’s full capacity to 52.1% after over 5 million cubic meters of water reached the dam.

The Omatako Dam received 0.4 million/m³ in the same period. These two dams, together with the Swakoppoort Dam, supply Windhoek with its precious water. The three dams now only have 25.8% of their full capacity, which means that Windhoekers will have to cut down on water usage by at least 10% per household or business.


The Friedenau Dam and the Goreangab Dam have also seen a slight rise in water levels, as well as the Olushandja Dam in the north of the country.


In the east of the country, dam levels are even lower. The four dams supplying Gobabis are only 3.2% full (compared to 9.8% in 2018). This means, of the 19,256 million/m³ capacity only 0.620 million/m³ is available (compared to 1.895 M/m³ in 2018).


NamWater announced that all the dams in the country were filled with 33.6% of their full capacity on Monday, 7 January 2019. This means there is 233,530 M/m³ of water left in all the dams. At the same time last year, a total of 41% (286,231 million/m³) of water was available.

The Hardap Dam in Mariental, the largest dam in Namibia, can store up to 294,593 million/m³, but currently only has 100,721 million/m³ available.

If all 17 dams in the country are full, they store 705,855 million/m³. 


NamWater had announced the following percentages for the different dams and in brackets the percentages last year at the same time: 
 

Von Bach Dam

Swakoppoort Dam 22.9% (40.5%)
Von Bach Dam 52.1% (59.6%)
Omatako Dam 1.4% (52.7%)
SUBTOTAL CENTRAL 25.8% (35.0%)

Friedenau Dam 32.4% (28.2%)
Goreangab Dam 94.6% (98.2%)
SUBTOTAL WINDHOEK 54.2% (52.7%)

Otjivero Dam 5.1% (12.5%)
Otjivero Silt Dam 0.0% (0.0%)
Tilda-Viljoen Dam 5.8% (44.4%)
Daan-Viljoen Dam 10.8% (29.1%)
SUBTOTAL GOBABIS 3.2% (9.8%)

Hardap Dam 34.2% (44.2%)
Naute Dam 65.5% (72.3%)
Oanob Dam 58.1% (72.3%)
Dreihuk Dam 2.3% (10.4%)
BondelsDam 0.0% (0.0%)
SUBTOTAL SOUTH 41.0% (50.6%)

Olushandja Dam 27.1% (18.3%)
Omaruru Delta Dam 0.0% (0.0%)
Omatjenne Dam 0.0% (0.0%)