2 new pools for city

THE Windhoek City Council has agreed to deepen a planned new Olympic-sized swimming pool to accommodate diving.

At its monthly meeting on Tuesday night, the Council agreed that the Windhoek Underwater Club, which made the request, carry the extra costs for adapting the original plans and the additional construction. The deep end of the new pool will now be four metres deep as opposed to 1,8 metres as originally planned.The rest of the pool will range between 1,5 metres and 1,35 metres in depth.Last year the City agreed that a new public swimming pool be built at an estimated cost of nearly N$7 million, saying the lifespan of the Jan Jonker pool had come to an end.However, the new swimming pool complex to be built in Windhoek’s southern suburb of Olympia, makes no provision for a separate diving pool, which is a feature of the Jan Jonker facility.Council had decided to only build a family recreational pool with a wave machine that would be equal in value to replacing the diving pool.But this week the Council said it was only fair to accommodate the needs of diving as a sport, considering the services the Windhoek Underwater club rendered to the City.They often clean the sluices at the Avis Dam at no cost and carry out inspection dives of reservoirs for NamWater.They are also called on to recover capsized boats and drowned bodies.Two one-meter diving boards will now be erected at the new swimming pool.According to the Namibia Amateur Swimming Union, deepening the pool for the last five metres of its length will also improve conditions for competition swimming.It is expected that the two new swimming pools will have a lifespan of between 35 and 40 years.Last year, the Council spent more than N$100 000 on repairs to both the Olympic and diving pools at the Jan Jonker facility because of seepage problems.The deep end of the new pool will now be four metres deep as opposed to 1,8 metres as originally planned.The rest of the pool will range between 1,5 metres and 1,35 metres in depth.Last year the City agreed that a new public swimming pool be built at an estimated cost of nearly N$7 million, saying the lifespan of the Jan Jonker pool had come to an end.However, the new swimming pool complex to be built in Windhoek’s southern suburb of Olympia, makes no provision for a separate diving pool, which is a feature of the Jan Jonker facility.Council had decided to only build a family recreational pool with a wave machine that would be equal in value to replacing the diving pool.But this week the Council said it was only fair to accommodate the needs of diving as a sport, considering the services the Windhoek Underwater club rendered to the City.They often clean the sluices at the Avis Dam at no cost and carry out inspection dives of reservoirs for NamWater.They are also called on to recover capsized boats and drowned bodies.Two one-meter diving boards will now be erected at the new swimming pool.According to the Namibia Amateur Swimming Union, deepening the pool for the last five metres of its length will also improve conditions for competition swimming.It is expected that the two new swimming pools will have a lifespan of between 35 and 40 years.Last year, the Council spent more than N$100 000 on repairs to both the Olympic and diving pools at the Jan Jonker facility because of seepage problems.