POPULAR Democratic Movement leader McHenry Venaani says his party will build three desalination plants to transform the agricultural sector in the country, if elected into power.
The proposal to establish desalination plants is part of PDM’s plan to pump water to all parts of the country to provide the necessary support to farmers and boost agricultural output.
Venaani made these remarks at a media event on Wednesday during the launch of the party’s manifesto for the presidential and National Assembly elections on 27 November.
PDM’s ambitious transformation plan for Namibia titled ‘Strategy Namibia – Agenda for Change and Transforming our Nation’, will guide the party’s policies, if they succeed in the elections.
PDM is the latest, of the 17 registered political parties, to launch its manifesto.
Venaani is the presidential candidate for PDM, which is in a coalition with the United People’s Movement (UPM).
He said the PDM will reduce the unemployment rate from the current 28% to 11% through agricultural transformation.
To do this, the PDM leader said his government will construct three desalination plants in three key locations, namely the Kunene region, one between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, and another at Lüderitz.
The desalination plants will be linked to catchment dams to be built in “every region to support irrigation and aquaponics,” he added.
“You cannot industrialise, mechanise and have a productive agricultural sector if you don’t have water. PDM has an agenda to address the water situation in the country because our poverty and our underdevelopment is hinged on our climatic conditions and [the] lack of water we are experiencing.
“If we want to bring jobs to our country, we must make sure that we have an agricultural sector that is mechanised, modernised, and that can be able to feed our own people,” he stated.
Venaani added that his plan for desalination plants will be bench-marked from that of Israel, which is one of the countries that have managed to transform its desert land into productive agricultural land with water being pumped from the ocean.
“Sixty-seven percent of that country is a desert, but every vegetable consumed in that country is produced there. They have a shorter shoreline than ours”.
“So, if we change our strategy and bring water from the sea into the heather land, we will create the necessary jobs through agriculture. How many jobs can we create between Uis and Lüderitz through grape farms?” Venaani asked.
Apart from water provision for agricultural production, his party also plans to increase energy production through capitalising on renewable energy sources.
The PDM leader also promised to provide free education from lower to upper-primary levels, while providing support to identified priority areas at tertiary level.
His party also wants to establish institutions of higher learning in every region to improve the quality of education, with greater emphasis on vocational training.
He was, optimistic that the opposition party could topple the ruling Swapo Party’s dominance during this year’s election.
“This year presents the opposition parties the best chance ever to break the two-thirds majority and bring down the ruling party, because the plethora of problems, ills and mismanagement and corruption that have eroded the credibility of governance in our country cannot be underestimated,” he stressed.
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