Vast aquifer found in Namibia could last for centuries

Matt McGrath in BBC World Service: A newly discovered water source in Namibia could have a major impact on development in the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates suggest the aquifer could supply the north of the country for 400 years at current rates of consumption.

Scientists say the water is up to 10,000 years old but is cleaner to drink than many modern sources. However, there are concerns that unauthorised drilling could threaten the new supply.

For the people of northern Namibia water is something that they either have too much of or too little. The 800,000 people who live in the area depend for their drinking water on a 40-year-old canal that brings the scarce resource across the border from Angola.

Over the past decade the Namibian government have been trying to tackle the lack of a sustainable supply in partnership with researchers from Germany and other EU countries. They have now identified a new aquifer called Ohangwena II, which flows under the boundary between Angola and Namibia....

The Grootberg Plateau in Damaraland, in north central Namibia, shot by markos, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license