Kazapua’s dream for Windhoek – a river walk

WINDHOEK mayor Muesee Kazapua has dreams of building a river walk in Africa akin to that of the famous San Antonio city, south-central of Texas in the US.

The San Antonio River Walk (also known as Paseo del Río or simply as The River Walk) is a city park and network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one storey beneath the streets of San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Lined by bars, shops, restaurants, nature, public artwork, and the five historic missions, the river walk is an important part of the city’s urban fabric and a tourist attraction in its own right.

The river walk, a successful special-case pedestrian street, one level down from the automobile street, winds and loops under bridges as two parallel pavements lined with restaurants and shops, connects the major tourist draws from the shops at Rivercentre.

It also goes all the way to the Arneson River Theatre, to Marriage Island, to La Villita, to HemisFair Park, to the Tower Life Building, to the San Antonio Museum of Art, to the Pearl and the city’s five Spanish colonial missions, which have been named a World Heritage Site, including the Alamo.

Kazapua, who is leading a delegation of city officials to the US, told the Business Journal this week that he plans to launch a public-private partnership to enable Windhoek to build the river walk-inspired attraction.

“We want it to be a mixed development – restaurants, hotels and other things that will attract tourists to come to Windhoek.

“Windhoek is a beautiful capital city. We are already regarded as one of the cleanest cities in Africa,” Kazapua told the paper.

Although he said the project would not be without challenges, he is hopeful that Windhoek could be one of the first cities in Africa to have a river walk.

Some of the challenges, Kazapua further told the paper, is that Namibia is mostly desert, and Windhoek is a landlocked city nestled in the Khomas Highlands.

He, however, said Namibia was adopting solar power, and collaborating with the San Antonio Water System to develop a water reclamation system that could potentially be used for the project.

“It will be a good example to emulate,” he enthused. “We will be one of the first cities in Africa to have a river walk. Hopefully, other African cities will join.”

Plans for a river walk in Windhoek is not new after a proposal made to the city by the Windhoek-based architecture firm, Barnard Mutua Architects about six years ago.

It is not clear whether Kazapua’s plans would consider the original Barnard Mutua initiative, or will be based on that of San Antonio, with whom Windhoek signed an agreement for knowledge-sharing in 2015.

Since its establishment, the Barnard Mutua river walk initiative has been trying to garner support, especially from leaders at local authority and national level. It has also been getting the attention of the Windhoek municipality.

Even the Windhoek council minutes of 30 July 2015 noted Barnard Mutua’s plans, saying they expected a business plan for the development.

Barnard Mutua’s 12-kilometre river walk project would create urban parks from the city’s 200 hectare of river courses, streams and open spaces, thereby creating one big outdoor community from the Avis Dam in the east to Goreangab Dam in the west of Windhoek.

Apart from making Windhoek beautiful, the Barnard Mutua river walk would also create spaces for coffee and jewellery shops, and food stalls.

During the visit, Kazapua met San Antonio Water System officials, and toured the River Walk on Sunday before meeting Tim Blonkvist — the founding principal of San Antonio-based Overland Partners Inc.

Blonkvist told Kazapua they had done a complete survey of the entire San Antonio River Walk, and spent years compiling information to use at other locations.

Already tapped with building River Walk-style projects in several Chinese cities, Blonkvist told the Business Journal that he accepted an invitation from Kazapua to attend a city of San Antonio-led trade mission to Namibia in October.

Blonkvist has started studying aerial photos and the hydrology of the Namibian capital. The San Antonio-based architect sees the potential for the project, which he said may also require the expertise of the San Antonio River Authority and his company’s long-time partners at global engineering firm Arup.

A successful river walk, Blonkvisit said, requires a minimum depth of three feet while the width can vary, allowing for different experiences by visitors.

“The key is variety, not monotony,” Blonkvist said. “We’ll create a lot of variety.”

San Antonio-based lawyer Bob Braubach, who serves as Namibia’s honorary consul, said the river walk plans come less than two years after Windhoek signed an October 2016 sister city agreement with San Antonio.

“The sister city agreements are like a roadmap to a long-term relationship,” Braubach said.

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