NBL wants full utilisation of its boreholes – Windhoek Observer

Martin Endjala

The Managing Director of Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL), Peter Simons, says the company wants to use its own boreholes for production

The City of Windhoek has restricted the company to only use 20 percent of its boreholes.

Simons said this on Thursday during the announcement of NBL’s consolidated financial results for six months that ended December 2023.

“We have our own boreholes. If we could use our boreholes fully, we would not have any impact on the water shortage, the challenge we have is through the Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) and the City of Windhoek (CoW). That is the big conversation we continue to have. The solution for us is our boreholes, which allows us to leverage our borehole water,” he said.

Simons indicated that they are concerned about water shortages, as a result of this, the company is engaging other stakeholders to find a solution both for NBL as well as for the water shortages in the capital as he believes that water crises require a holistic approach.

He said that he foresees a risk coming which is a water crisis, hence his call on the business community to come to the table to discuss and find long and short-term solutions.

Simons indicated that if NBL is accorded the opportunity to utilise its boreholes, the concerns raised by CoW and NamWater around the impact NBL’s production will have on the already ongoing shortage of water in the capital, will not be an issue.

Simons stated that this is the ground of the application on which it has applied to CoW, but until now they are still waiting for a response.

City of Windhoek Communications and Marketing Manager, Harold Akwenye explained that dam levels particularly the Von Bach Dam, are at 11 percent capacity.

Citing it as a huge concern, since it is one of the capital’s main suppliers of water, including Okahandja and Karibib.

Akwenye also indicated that currently, there is no ACT in place on boreholes. “Windhoek water supply is in crisis. We need to save water where we can,” said Akwenye.

Calls to the NamWater Managing Director, Abraham Nehemia, regarding the matter raised by NBL, went unanswered.

Meanwhile, despite economic challenges that resulted in the decline of beer sales roping to 13.7 percent, NBL’s net revenue increased by 15 percent to N$2.1 billion. This increase was attributed to the successful integration of the Distell portfolio, which performed well, and a price increase to cover inflation.