Windhoek councillors inspect pioneering water reclamation plants
City of Windhoek councillors on Monday conducted a site visit to the capital’s water reclamation facilities, where officials highlighted both the city’s globally recognised innovation in water reuse and growing operational pressures linked to staffing shortages.
At the Goreangab reclamation plant, General Manager Thomas Horner of the Windhoek Goreangab Operating Company (WINGOC) traced the city’s longstanding leadership in water recycling, describing it as historically significant on a global scale.
“On the global scale, historic, not local, global,” Horner said, adding that Windhoek pioneered direct potable reuse as early as 18 October 1968. “So Windhoek is the first place, the first city in the world where actually water is immediately transformed back to drinking water.”
He explained that, unlike indirect reuse systems elsewhere, Windhoek’s process allows treated wastewater to be returned to drinking standards within days rather than months. “There they do indirect potable reuse, so they produce drinking water, but it’s used months after production, not like here, days after production,” he said, referring to international examples.
Horner noted that the facility remains among the largest of its kind globally, though this status may soon change. “Unfortunately, Windhoek will lose that status, either to Cape Town or to two sites in Texas, but we don’t know who’s finished first,” he said.
The plant receives treated effluent from the Gammams Water Care Works, which is then subjected to advanced purification processes to meet potable standards. Horner said the key challenge lies in removing contaminants that remain after initial treatment. “That water still contains faecal bacteria or parasites even, and also that water contains what’s called micropollutants,” he said. These include pharmaceuticals, detergents, and chemical preservatives commonly found in domestic wastewater.
To address this, the facility employs what Horner described as a “multi-barrier principle”. “Each problem must have at least two full barriers. So if one fails, there’s another barrier… still in operation,” he said. “If a barrier fails, we see it, because we monitor the plant online and then we stop production.”
Councillors were also briefed at the Gammams Water Care Works, where Section Engineer Koos Theron raised concerns about staffing constraints affecting maintenance operations.
“My office is responsible for the maintenance of water-related infrastructure. We have a 50% vacancy rate,” Theron said. “So we are a bit stretched.”
He warned that while operations remain stable for now, limited capacity is placing pressure on service delivery. “From a maintenance point of view, we are a bit stretched, and that’s something we will have to do better,” he said.
Theron emphasised the importance of strict monitoring protocols to ensure water safety before it is transferred for further treatment. “We have to ensure that we’re testing everything the parameters are balanced or they are below not in an alarm state,” he said.
If water quality falls outside acceptable thresholds, it is immediately discarded. “If it goes beyond that, then we can’t use the water. We have to dump the water. It doesn’t go further to Windhoek for further processing,” he explained. In such cases, the facility notifies the city of reduced or suspended supply. “We also inform Windhoek to say we won’t be able to provide you with so much volume or anything at the moment,” Theron said.
The visit highlighted both the city’s reliance on advanced water reclamation in a water-scarce environment and the operational risks posed by capacity gaps, particularly in maintenance and technical staffing.
