The German partners of the WaReNam project are preparing for their second visit to Namibia this year, set to take place from October 13-25, 2025. The two-week program will be packed with high-level meetings, site visits, and community outreach activities across the country.
The visit will kick off with a Round Table meeting on October 15, 2025, chaired by the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL). Building on a successful meeting in June between the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform (MAFWLR) and the Association of Local Authorities Namibia (ALAN), the ALAN colleagues will now join the Round Table. Their participation is seen as crucial in linking the project to local authorities and communities.
On October 16, 2025, the Consortium meeting will convene. This gathering will bring together local institutions such as the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST), the University of Namibia (UNAM), and the Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology (NIMT), along with German partners, ministries, town councils and other stakeholders. Participants will revisit the list of project deliverables and discuss the results of a formative evaluation, previously conducted by the project partners through an online questionnaire to assess project management, communication, and coordination for learning from and improvement of internal processes.
The Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for October 23, 2025. The committee already includes partners from key ministries such as MAFWLR, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development (MURD), the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT), the Ministry of Works and Transport (MWT), the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations (MOJ), Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS), the National Planning Commission (NPC) and the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE). This second meeting will also welcome new participants from the Namibia Water Corporation Ltd (NamWater) and the Namibian Standards Institution (NSI) to discuss the formation and scope of the WaReNam task forces.
In addition to meetings, awareness-raising campaigns will roll out with the involvement of SASSCAL, NUST, UNAM, the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST), Emschergenossenschaft und Lippeverband (EGLV), ISOE, and now also MAFWLR. Notably, ISOE and UNAM are planning a community outreach in Oshakati, where UNAM will engage local farmers on crop production and water reuse. Meanwhile, NUST will host a second public lecture at its Eenhana campus.
Several site visits are also on the agenda, including the Oshakati demonstration plant, where work on the trickling filter platform has begun, and various waste stabilization ponds in northern Namibia.
To round off this busy month, two members of the WaReNam group — Cynthia Ortmann, Deputy Director of Water Environment at MAFWLR, and Charmonix Coetzee, WaReNam Project Assistant — will represent the project at the WaterNet Symposium in Lusaka, October 29-31, 2025.
With a full program of discussions, visits, and outreach activities, this October visit promises to be an eventful milestone in strengthening Namibian-German cooperation on water reuse.