Much of Namibia is too dry for any agriculture. However a new aquifer named Ohangwena II has been discovered in northern Namibia. The aquifer is huge and straddles the border between Angola and Namibia. On the Namibian side alone the aquifer stretches over an area of over a thousand square miles.
Marting Quinger of the German Federal Institute for Geoscience and Natural Resources said: "The amount of stored water would equal the current supply of this area in northern Namibia for 400 years, which has about 40 percent of the population,"
An aquifer is a below ground area that is saturated with groundwater. Wells can access this groundwater however care must be taken not to demand too much water at one time. The aquifer is about 300 meters under the ground.and is estimated to contain about 5 billion cubic meters of water. The aquifer is slowly replenished by water from mountains in Angola to the north.
Research has recently uncovered a number of freshwater aquifers across Africa. Since many areas including Namibia face severe drought conditions this is heartening news. In Namibia the government had just approved 4 million U.S. in drought aid to one region. Namibia is larger in area than France but the city of Chicago has more people. Half of Namibians live below the poverty line.
The aquifer will be a boon to Namibia. However Quinger warned that on top of the freshwater aquifer there is a smaller salt water aquifer. Drillers must be careful not to accidentally allow the salt water to mix with the fresh water aquifer. No doubt global corporate water suppliers would like to obtain rights to the water. If Namibia is wise it will develop the resources itself to benefit their own people. For more see this article and also here
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