Social impact assessment of changing the water level in the Olushandja Dam
The Olushandja dam is located in the northern part of Namibia, in the Omusati region - one of the four regions into which the former Ovamboland was divided after independence. The Olushandja dam is part of a two-dam supply system comprising the Calueque dam, on the Cunene river in Angola and the Olushandja dam in Namibia. Construction on Olushandja dam was completed in 1975. It acts as a storage and balancing dam for water supplied from Calueque. Olushandja dam is 17, 7kms long and about 300m wide. For the last 20 years it has been managed at 30% as this is the capacity at which evaporation balances injection of water into the dam and seepage. As part of a plan to upgrade the pumping facilities at Calueque and Olushandja dams, upgrading at Olushandja was initiated early in 1995, and involved repairing the north wall pump station and pumps, and the repair of the sluice gates at the south wall. Upgrading of the Calueque facilities is envisaged for 1996. With upgrading virtually complete at Olushandja, the UCT team were commissioned to conduct a SIA on the effect of changing the water level in the dam on the rural communities living in the vicinity of the dam. The SIA forms part of a full EIA looking at the overall environmental effect of changing the water level at which the dam is currently managed. The impact of the SIA will therefore be in terms of management rather than construction.
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Department of Environmental and Geographical Science