City takes action to protect groundwater

THE Windhoek City Council has passed strict new town-planning regulations aimed at preventing pollution of its most precious and vulnerable groundwater resource, the Windhoek Aquifer.

The new regulations will permit the municipality to obtain compensation from any person who discharges hazardous materials, either intentionally or by accident, into a groundwater recharge area, as well as the cost of rehabilitating the area. In the absence of an Environmental and Assessment Management law, plans for which have been in the pipeline for about a decade, the City has decided to incorporate regulations into its town-planning scheme as a way to punish polluters.At its monthly meeting on Wednesday night, the Council noted that it had to take matters into its own hands to regulate or control activities that may have a detrimental effect on the environment.The Councillors agreed to include the provisions in Windhoek’s Town Planning Scheme to “avoid danger or injury to health, or excessive expenditure of public money due to pollution of the City’s groundwater”.Several studies initiated by the municipality found that the aquifer and its catchment area were vulnerable to disturbance and land transformation, as well as potential pollution.In a country where water is scarce, the Windhoek Aquifer is an immensely important resource that can contribute significantly to the long-term supply of water to the City.”The results of these studies found that the Windhoek Aquifer and the resource that it represented could potentially be severely impacted on by several factors if protection measures were not implemented in the short term.The management of potential pollutants to the Windhoek Aquifer is therefore of utmost importance,” notes the Windhoek Aquifer policy.In line with the new regulations, another land zone, which will be called “conservation” or “ground protection”, has been created.The whole southern part of the City’s townland will be zoned as such.No business or industrial buildings, service stations, shops, poultry or pig farms, plantations or orchards will be allowed there.This area is currently zoned as “undetermined” according to the City’s town-planning scheme and encompasses the majority of the mica rock formations responsible for a significant component of the groundwater recharge.In the higher-lying areas of the Auas Mountains the mica quartzite contributes the most to the direct recharge of the Windhoek Aquifer.The vulnerability of the areas north of the conservation zone has now also led to the introduction of a buffer strip, which will run south of the Windhoek Bypass to the east.The legal boundaries in which no new industrial land will be created are the southern edges of Academia, Windhoek, Olympia and Klein Windhoek.While the City plans not to allow any industrial activity in the buffer strip, it has to consider existing erven in Prosperita.The activities under the “industrial zone” for this area have now also been amended to prevent any dangerous activities such as the storage of hazardous substances.In the absence of an Environmental and Assessment Management law, plans for which have been in the pipeline for about a decade, the City has decided to incorporate regulations into its town-planning scheme as a way to punish polluters.At its monthly meeting on Wednesday night, the Council noted that it had to take matters into its own hands to regulate or control activities that may have a detrimental effect on the environment.The Councillors agreed to include the provisions in Windhoek’s Town Planning Scheme to “avoid danger or injury to health, or excessive expenditure of public money due to pollution of the City’s groundwater”.Several studies initiated by the municipality found that the aquifer and its catchment area were vulnerable to disturbance and land transformation, as well as potential pollution.In a country where water is scarce, the Windhoek Aquifer is an immensely important resource that can contribute significantly to the long-term supply of water to the City.”The results of these studies found that the Windhoek Aquifer and the resource that it represented could potentially be severely impacted on by several factors if protection measures were not implemented in the short term.The management of potential pollutants to the Windhoek Aquifer is therefore of utmost importance,” notes the Windhoek Aquifer policy.In line with the new regulations, another land zone, which will be called “conservation” or “ground protection”, has been created.The whole southern part of the City’s townland will be zoned as such.No business or industrial buildings, service stations, shops, poultry or pig farms, plantations or orchards will be allowed there.This area is currently zoned as “undetermined” according to the City’s town-planning scheme and encompasses the majority of the mica rock formations responsible for a significant component of the groundwater recharge.In the higher-lying areas of the Auas Mountains the mica quartzite contributes the most to the direct recharge of the Windhoek Aquifer.The vulnerability of the areas north of the conservation zone has now also led to the introduction of a buffer strip, which will run south of the Windhoek Bypass to the east.The legal boundaries in which no new industrial land will be created are the southern edges of Academia, Windhoek, Olympia and Klein Windhoek.While the City plans not to allow any industrial activity in the buffer strip, it has to consider existing erven in Prosperita.The activities under the “industrial zone” for this area have now also been amended to prevent any dangerous activities such as the storage of hazardous substances.