Progress has been recorded for a new five-year project aimed at ensuring water supply security and community resilience across the Cuvelai and Kunene River Basins in northern Namibia and southern Angola.
This week, Enhanced Water Security and Community Resilience in the Cuvelai and Kunene Transboundary River Basins (CuvKun) project spokesperson Nelo Haimbodi shared a document on what has been done towards the implementation of the project under the Cuvelai Water Commission.
According to the document, 2025 was a foundational year for the project and focused on major technical studies, setting up the decision-making framework and commencing the groundwork for community level interventions.
It says the transboundary diagonistic analysis and the strategic action programme process for both the Cuvelai and Kunene Basins was launched last year while consultations for an institutional framework are currently taking place.
“Pilot site selections has started with initial groundwork, planning and selection of sites for the gender-responsive, community-driven demonstration projects, such as water harvesting and conservation agriculture and preparing for physical implementation in the following years,” says the document.
It says an initiative for designing the Cuvelai Early Warning System is underway and is being done in collaboration with the Co-Design Hydro-meteorological Information System for Sustainable Water Resource Management in South Africa.
Furthermore, groundwater assessment for the Cuvelai Basin has begun including field reconnaissance and plans for geophysical investigations, as this is crucial for the river system which relies on groundwater.
The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility with US$11.2 million through the United Nations Development Programme and is running from May 2024 to November 2029.
