My Tour to the Water Reclamation Plant in Windhoek

The City of Windhoek runs three wastewater treatment plants: two plants treat domestic sanitary sewer and one plant is exclusively for industrial effluent. Unlike in Cincinnati, here industrial wastewater is treated separately because the effluent from domestic wastewater is reclaimed for drinking water.

You may remeber from my earlier posts that Windhoek is the only city in the world that directly augments its drinking water supplies with reclaimed water from sewage water. Just like most Americans would be, I was frightened (and intrigued at the same time) at the thought of drinking reclaimed sewer water. So I contacted NamWater (the drinking water people) and the City of Windhoek that owns all of the City’s wastewater plants, through my host, the Polytechnic of Namibia. NamWater is owned by the Government of Namibia, which owns every drop of water in the country, whether on the ground, underground, or in the wastewater treatment plant. I was interested in learning more about the Gammams wastewater treatment plant, as the effluent from Gammams serves as the raw water for the Goreangab reclamation plant. At the Goreangab plant, the water is purified to exceed the US EPA’s drinking water standards before it is blended with drinking water. Talk about a complete water cycle!

Both plants I toured (Gammams and Goreangab), are run to meet international standards. The Gammams wastewater treatment plant is also used to harvest methane gas (this gas is naturally produced during wastewater treatment) to run its own small power generator and meet its electricity demand. But I was most intrigued by the water reclamation plant. I saw effluent flowing out of Gammams wastewater plant into a natural reservoir (maturation ponds) from where it is picked by the Goreangab reclamation plant. Ozone gas is used at least at two times during the process to kill any living organisms and chlorine is also used at least at two steps to sanitize water. During the final step, the water is filtered through a series of extremely fine filters which can remove even residual viruses. The whole process of purification is meticulous and quite impressive. The end product is extremely safe and exceeds drinking water standards. The plant manager proved it by drinking it in front of me (see the picture below).

Some pictures from my trip to Gammams wastewater treatment plant and Goreangab Reclamation Plant are below. Please feel free to send me any questions or comments.

Some wildlife pictures are coming soon!

Gammams Wastewater Treatment Plant

Wastewater coming into the plant

Methane gas collection tank

Wastewater is aerated twice at the Gammams plant. The above picture is of the second aeration process which is much vigorous than the regular aeration process (as done at our MSDGC plants). The second aeration of wastewater is done to inject as much oxygen as possible in the water. After this heavy aeration of sludge water, the solids are separated and effluent is released into the maturation reservoir (pictured below). Because the effluent is going to be purified and mixed with drinking water, it must have high dissolved oxygen contents to meet the standards.

Water maturation reservoir. Effluent from the Gammams WW plant flows into this reservoir where remaining solids and other contaminants are removed naturally. This water slowly flows towards the Goreangab Reclamation Plant. The reservoir water sustains aquatic life (fish), an indication that the water has enough dissolved oxygen.

Effluent, "matured raw water" from the reservoir arriving at the Goreangab Reclamation Plant. It takes about 4 days for the water to arrive to this plant after being released in the reservoir by the Gammams plant.

Final filtration step. A series of extremely fine filters are used in a series to remove any viruses and other biological material that might have survived two doses of ozone followed by chlorine treatments and managed to reach to this point.

Inside look of a filter.

If I can drink it, you can too. Plant Manager, Mr. John Esterhuisen, is demonstrating his confidence in the water purification process by collecting a purified sample and drinking in front of me. (No, I still couldn't find the courage to follow his lead). 

From wastewater to drinking water. The sample on the left is what comes in the reclamation and purification plant from the maturation reservoir and what goes out after purification (sample on right). You can see the difference.

        And finally, a tangled tree at the Gammams WWT Plant

What is the Polytechnic of Namibia?

Namibia has two major centers of learning; University of Namibia (UNam) and The Polytechnic of Namibia, commonly known as Polytech or Poly. Both are located in the capital city of Windhoek. While the University of Namibia offers its students undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses, the Polytech’s primary function is to prepare their students for the workforce through research, teaching, and training. The Polytech offers four-year undergraduate degree (bachelors) courses as well as postgraduate (masters) degree courses in a variety of areas for 15,000 students. The faculty is actively engaged in research, trying to find solutions to local issues ranging from wastewater reclamation to HIV/AIDS control and prevention. For example, when I had a problem with my WiFi connection at my apartment located on the campus, the IT department sent two young “experts” who are majoring in System Administration for on-the-job training. These students will have enough training to be hired by local companies as soon they graduate. The Polytech offers similar study-training programs in many science, business administration, and humanities areas. This is a simple but effective approach, which serves the younger generation of Namibia quite well.

My involvement at The Polytechnic of Namibia.

I am working with two departments: The Department of Engineering Science and the Department of Environmental Health Science.

In the Department of Engineering Science, I will be teaching a course on water quality, wastewater, and public health to students enrolled in the master’s program. The classes will be held on weekends from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Most students who are enrolled in this class will be travelling more than 250 miles one way to attend the classes. These students work fulltime jobs during the week and travel to Windhoek to attend school over the weekend. Now, that’s what I call a commitment! After graduation, these students find better opportunities in their own communities and meet the growing demand for professionals across Namibia.

My affiliation with the department of Environmental Health Science (EHS) is to conduct water quality research in Windhoek and other parts of Namibia. I intend to identify sampling locations and set up a network of water monitoring sites. These sites will help establish the initial baseline of water quality in various parts of Namibia. The department of EHS will continue with follow-up research and monitor sites in the future.

This week I am meeting with the Namibia’s Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Forestry and several high level officials in the Ministry to learn more about their plans to address Namibia’s growing water demands. I will also be meeting with water authorities in Windhoek and will tour treatment plants this week. I will report you back next week about these meetings, so stay tuned!

 My apartment is on the right end on the 7th floor of this 11 story office cum residential building.

Polytechnic Library

Engineering Science Building. I will be teaching classes in this building.

 Science and Technology Laboratory Building. I am working on my research project in this bulding.

It feels good to be in Namibia

Hello to you all from Windhoek (pronounced as wind hook), Namibia!

The long wait is over and I have arrived in Windhoek, Namibia. I will be here till mid-April 2013. As promised, I will be writing about the city of Windhoek, the country of Namibia, its people, the culture, and much more. I will also share the progress of my work as we go along. I hope you will enjoy reading this blog and please let me know if you have any questions.

Geography and Weather

Namibia is a small country in southern Africa. It borders Angola and Zambia in the north, South Africa in the south, and Botswana in the east. The whole west side of Namibia borders the South Atlantic Ocean.

In size, it’s about 20% bigger than Texas but with a population of only 2 million people. Windhoek is the capital city and is home of about 250 thousand residents. Although it has a long coastal line with the South Atlantic Ocean in the west, and two major rivers on the northern and southern boarders, most of country is a desert. Water is the most valuable commodity here. Water is so scarce that the city of Windhoek’s water department reclaims water from wastewater treatment plants and after purifying and sanitizing it, mixes it with the drinking water supplies. I have been drinking this purified water for the past week and doing fine. Despite of such an acute water shortage, all homes have clean running water 24 hours a day. I will talk more about drinking water in my future postings on this blog.

Because Namibia is located in the southern hemisphere, November and December are the peak summer months. Summer in the desert is generally not very pleasant. Namibia is no exception. Daytime temperatures runs around 95 degrees (Fahrenheit) but the nights are a comfortable 65-70 degrees. Don’t run to lower your thermostat; most homes in Namibia have no air-conditioning. Natural wind is the only cooling system. Most new office buildings and malls are centrally cooled just like in the US.

People, Language, and Driving

For someone coming from the US, driving can be very confusing. Namibians drive on the left side of the street. I am slowly trying to undo 26 years of spotless right-hand driving experience in the US, and learn how to legally drive on the wrong side of the street.

Windhoek is a very clean city. I haven’t seen a single piece of trash on the street. People are very conscientious and use trashcans installed on the streets every 100 yards or so. I can say with confidence that this is one of the cleanest cities I have ever visited, including those in the US. People are proud of their country and are committed to make their country one of the most advanced nations on the African continent. People are very polite and soft spoken. Sometimes it appears that they are just whispering while talking. African hospitality is visible everywhere.

English is the official language today, but until its independence from South Africa in 1990, people spoke only Afrikaans; a language derived mainly from Dutch. People were discouraged from learning or speaking English under South African control until 1990. So the older generation can speak or write only Afrikaans while the younger generation is fluent both in English and Afrikaans. I intend to take some classes on Afrikaans so I can communicate with the locals while here and impress you all with my command on Afrikaans when I return home next year.

Next Time

Next week I will write about the Polytechnic of Namibia where I am working. There is so much to talk about this country; the culture, wildlife, landscape, challenges faced by the younger generation, and more. I will also keep you informed about the progress of my research activities. Please let me know if you want to know more about any aspect of this beautiful country. Just post a question or comment on the blog and I will find an answer for you. More to come next week so stay tuned.

Achal

November 19, 2012

Here are some pictures of the city of Windhoek from the balcony of my apartment on 7th floor. You might have noticed that the City is surronded by hills. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Looking north from my apartment

Downtown Windhoek

Another view of downtown. The blue building on the right

is the Metropolitan Namibia building. It's equivalent to our City Hall.

Blue sunny skies in Windhoek. Looking south from my apartment.