PDM pitches a mine rehabilitation fund for water security

Namibia’s rainfall is uneven, groundwater is unevenly distributed, and many communities in the north and rural regions face shortages during dry years. Water therefore shapes where people live, work, farm and run businesses. Treating scarcity as an occasional drought response would leave the country exposed to longer and more costly cycles of disruption.

The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) has proposed a national fund to rehabilitate abandoned mines so suitable sites can be converted into water reservoirs. The proposal seeks to turn environmental liabilities into drought-resilient public assets while supporting regional development in places affected by historic mining.

For readers in Australia, the idea has an obvious point of comparison. The Pilbara and Goldfields contain legacy mine sites, remote settlements and active debates over water allocation. Australia offers valuable technical experience, but Namibian conditions, law and community priorities must determine the final design.

Water security is a national development imperative

Water security is an economic issue as well as an environmental one. Reliable supplies support sanitation, schools, clinics, livestock, irrigation and small businesses. A well-managed reservoir can reduce pressure on boreholes and communal taps, but it cannot replace watershed protection, groundwater monitoring and efficient household use.

PDM’s proposal should therefore form part of a broader water programme. New storage may improve reliability during drought, while leak reduction, catchment management and clear allocation rules protect the value of that storage. Combining infrastructure with accountable institutions gives communities a stronger chance of benefiting over many decades.

Turning mine liabilities into water assets

Not every abandoned mine can hold water safely. Open pits may have unstable walls or polluted groundwater, while old underground workings can collapse or flood unpredictably. Some sites also sit in arid areas with no practical source of inflow, so a national programme must begin with technical screening rather than a list of politically attractive projects.

A promising site would have a stable void, a protected catchment, acceptable water chemistry, safe access and a realistic route to communities. Environmental baselines would test impacts on rivers, wildlife and nearby settlements. Where those conditions are absent, rehabilitation should still prioritise safe closure, land restoration and long-term monitoring.

At viable locations, the fund could finance shaft capping, slope stabilisation, erosion control, drainage, habitat work, pumping equipment and pipelines. These measures would reduce contamination risks and make safe operation possible. A site would become a reservoir only after commissioning, water-quality testing and a clear plan for droughts, floods and maintenance.

Designing a transparent rehabilitation fund

A dedicated fund is preferable to scattered, short-term spending because abandoned sites require years of treatment and monitoring. It can hold approved projects across regions, release money in stages tied to milestones and preserve funds for future maintenance. This structure gives ministries, regulators, communities and contractors a shared programme rather than a series of isolated announcements.

The fund’s credibility depends on an explicit and predictable financing mix. Possible sources include government allocations, contributions from active mining operations, rehabilitation bonds and concessional climate or development finance. No single stream needs to carry the programme, and no project should depend on uncertain donations after construction has begun.

Governance must match that discipline. The fund should publish eligibility criteria, assessments, contracts, payments, environmental results and audited expenditure. Procurement should encourage competitive bids without excluding capable local firms, while conflicts of interest and political interference are handled openly. These controls reflect the accountability emphasis in PDM’s democratic programme and give the public a basis for judging delivery.

Engineering tests before water enters the reservoir

The most serious technical risk is poor water quality. Metals and sulphate can enter groundwater as mine drainage, and disturbed rock may release sediment or harmful chemicals. An empty pit that appears harmless can therefore become a liability once rain, runoff or pumping changes the flow.

Every candidate needs independent environmental assessment, geotechnical modelling and baseline sampling of air, soil, surface water and groundwater. The review should include downstream scenarios over dry and wet cycles, with clear thresholds for treatment, recharge or abandonment. Remote sensors and public monitoring data can then verify that the reservoir meets its standards after commissioning.

Operation also needs contingency planning. Inflow must be kept clear of contaminated waste, pumps require backup power, and evaporation must be included in the promised yield. Pipelines and access roads should be designed for intense storms and remote maintenance. Climate assumptions should be updated as rainfall records change, preventing the optimistic forecast of the design stage from becoming a permanent public promise.

Communities need a real stake in the water

Communities near abandoned mines have often carried the consequences of pollution, restricted land use and uncertain investment without receiving a fair share of benefits. Reservoir conversion changes that pattern only if local residents participate before designs are fixed. Consultation should include pastoral users, farmers, traditional authorities, women’s groups, youth and businesses, with information provided in the languages people use.

Benefits should be written down rather than promised vaguely. Agreements can cover guaranteed household allocations, compensation for land or livelihood effects, employment, maintenance contracts and a share of revenue where water is sold. Where communities lack technical capacity, the fund should finance independent advisers so participation is meaningful rather than merely formal.

Australian experience reinforces the need for early engagement. Native title processes and Aboriginal cultural heritage requirements have made consultation a formal part of mining approvals in many states. In Kalgoorlie-Boulder, residents frequently debate tailings dust, groundwater and the distribution of mining income. Namibia can draw on that local expectation of transparency while adapting consultation to communal tenure and its own cultural institutions.

Lessons from Australian mining regions

Australia’s mining regions show both the potential and the limits of rehabilitating legacy sites. In Western Australia’s Pilbara, old pits sit beside highways and new ore bodies, while water trucks travel long distances to some communities and worksites. In the Goldfields around Kalgoorlie-Boulder, residents talk plainly about tank water, bores, salinity and drought allocations. These examples show why water infrastructure must be connected to settlement planning.

The Australian market also demonstrates what specialised delivery requires. State regulators, including Western Australia’s Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety and the Environmental Protection Authority, oversee closure standards and rehabilitation. Contractors compete for earthworks, tailings management, hydrogeology and ecological restoration, with financial assurance helping protect public money when operators fail.

The Murray–Darling Basin offers a different lesson through its system of water entitlements and markets, where allocations are recorded and can be traded under state rules. Namibia does not need to import that market wholesale, but it does need equally transparent records of ownership, priority and permitted use. The transferable principle is simple: infrastructure succeeds when access rules are public before scarcity forces improvised decisions.

Youth skills and long-term delivery

A reservoir programme will create technical work in surveying, engineering, environmental monitoring, pipe maintenance and data management. It can also build a local service industry if contracts are structured around apprenticeships and supervised training. The PDM Youth League’s coding bootcamp announcement illustrates how young people who face financial barriers can gain practical digital skills that support public administration and community projects.

Skills must connect to actual procurement rather than remain separate campaigns. Partnerships with Namibian universities, vocational centres and experienced contractors could prepare young technicians to read sensors, maintain digital water records and support transparent reporting. Local content clauses should reward demonstrable capability, while international firms provide knowledge transfer instead of occupying every skilled role.

Implementation can proceed through a national inventory of abandoned mines, risk-ranked feasibility studies, transparent project selection and staged construction. Each stage should have public milestones, including rehabilitation before filling, water-quality results before supply and post-commissioning audits. By combining a protected fund with technical discipline and local opportunity, PDM’s proposal can convert abandoned mine liabilities into reliable, accountable water infrastructure.