PEOPLE in Swakopmund are talking about the huge vessel not so far from the shore at Mole – most believing it may have run aground.
It is a cable ship and is being used for repair work on the West Africa Cable System (WACS) which started on Saturday. Poor weather however apparently delayed the process on Sunday, with better conditions experienced yesterday.
According to Telecom Namibia’s Oiva Angula, a cable fault, affecting all traffic transiting via the Swakopmund WACS cable station, was detected on the WACS on 29 May 2014. Traffic was restored with an interim solution until the fault is localised and the cable system repaired.
Telecom Namibia and the WACS Consortium are preparing the cable repair on land at the Mole beach and at sea. Work is expected to be completed by early next week.
WACS is transporting the majority of internet traffic for Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. During the repair work, Telecom Namibia is rerouting internet traffic through other undersea cable systems to mitigate the impact on customers.
The WACS is a 14,530-kilometre long submarine communications cable system, connecting South Africa to Europe via West African countries, including Namibia. It was officially put into operation on 26 June 2012 and cost about N$6,5 billion.
