The Bethanie Desalination Plant, also Bethany Desalination Plant, is a

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuary ...

desalination plant in the settlement of

Bethanie Bethany (,Murphy-O'Connor, 2008, p152/ref> Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܥܢܝܐ ''Bēṯ ʿAnyā''), locally called in Arabic Al-Eizariya or al-Aizariya (, " laceof Lazarus"), is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate of Palestine, bordering East ...

in southern

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. The facility is owned and was developed by the Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater). The potable water produced by this plant, whose capacity production is per day, is expected to supply the town of Bethanie until 2037.

Location

The desalination plant is located in the town of Bethanie, in the

ǁKaras Region The ǁKharas Region (pronounced , with a lateral click, former name Karas Region, without the click) is the southernmost, largest, and least densely populated of the 14 regions of Namibia; its capital is Keetmanshoop. The name assigned to the r ...

of Namibia. Bethanie is located approximately , west of

Keetmanshoop Keetmanshoop is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It is named after , a German Empire, German industrialist and benefactor of the city. Keetmanshoop had a population of 27,862 people in 2023. History Before the colonial era, ...

, the capital of ǁKaras Region. Bethanie is located approximately south of

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

, the capital and largest city in the country.

Overview

The objective of this project is to improve the quantity and quality of drinking water available to the inhabitants of Bethany. It was developed as a

pilot project A pilot experiment, pilot study, pilot test or pilot project is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research pr ...

to explore the feasibility of desalinating brackish

ground water Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidat ...

for domestic and light commercial use. This is part of the Namibian government's attempt to increase water supply to Namibians, from 85 percent in 2022 to 100 percent. Namibia has set a goal to have 100 percent potable water supply to her citizens and residents by 2030. The plant is designed to process raw brackish ground water through desalination equipment that includes

reverse osmosis Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane, semi-permeable membrane to separate water molecules from other substances. RO applies pressure to overcome osmotic pressure that favors even distribu ...

membranes. Due to the rural location, renewable energy sources were selected. The installation is fitted with solar panels, so that the sun provides the power to fuel the desalination process.

Development

A number of national and international stakeholders worked together to design, construct and fund this desalination plant. The table below details the entities that supported this development. The Multilateral Environmental Agreements Division of the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism is a stakeholder in the development of this plant.

Funding and timeline

The construction is reported to have cost N$37 million (approx. US$2.3 million), funded by the stakeholders listed in the previous section. Construction took place between "October 2020 and October 2021", with commercial commissioning in July 2022.

References

External links