Chinese firm to build Namibia’s largest seawater desalination plant

Namibia’s water utility company and the subsidiary of a Chinese nuclear power company have agreed a joint venture deal to build the African country’s largest seawater desalination plant.

Swakop Uranium (owned by China General Nuclear Power Group) will finance the estimated three-billion-Namibian-dollar (US$176 million) cost of the project.

It will hold a 70% share in the joint venture while Namibian utility company NamWater will hold the remaining 30%.

The new plant sits close to Husab in the Namib desert, Namibia’s largest uranium mine. The deal guarantees a long-term water supply for Swakop Uranium, as well as supporting communities in the Erongo region of Namibia.

The open-pit Husab mine is the world’s largest of its kind. A total of $5 billion in investment has been poured into the facility over the past decade, according to the Chamber of Mines of Namibia.

It entered production in 2022 and consumes nine million cubic metres of desalinated water per year, as well as 69 million litres of diesel and 438,000 MWh of electricity form the national grid.