Breweries pour N$13m into water project

Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) has committed N$13 million to a five-year project with the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Water Challenge to improve water security and protect the Swakop River Basin. The Swakop Basin Collective Action Project is a five-year initiative bringing together the government, civil society and the private sector to address shared water challenges and to strengthen water security and climate resilience in the basin. Minister of agriculture, fisheries, water and land reform Inge Zaamwani has welcomed initiative, saying water is fundamental to food security, public health, industry, economic growth and the well-being of communities.

“However, our rivers are largely ephemeral, rainfall low and highly variable, and much of the rain we receive is lost through evaporation,” she said in a speech delivered on her behalf by executive director Teofilus Nghitila last Wednesday. “In such an environment, every drop counts as water is fundamental to food security, public health, industry, economic growth and the well-being of communities,” she said. NBL managing director Waldemar von Lieres says the project, also known as the NBL Water Balancing Project, will run to 2030. “Every decision we make today will determine the water security of future generations. “At Namibia Breweries, water is the primary ingredient in our products and without water, there is no NBL. That is why our ambition is to lead Namibia’s water stewardship, inside our brewery and beyond,” he says. Von Lieres says NBL has invested more than N$35 million in water sustainability and efficiency measures since 2015, including borehole infrastructure, environmental studies and water treatment technologies. “Since 2024, we have reduced our water efficiency by almost 30%, meaning we used…