Best International Project
PROJECT TEAM
Client: Namibia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform Consulting engineer: Knight Piésold Consulting Contractor: Salini-Impregilo SpA
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Knight Piésold Consulting for Neckartal Dam and Phase 1 Bulk Water Supply, Namibia
he Neckartal Dam and Phase 1 Bulk Water Supply project, inaugurated on 13 March 2020 by Namibian Vice President Dr Nangolo Mbumba, is a
symbol of hope for a Namibia recovering from a series of droughts. The project is part of a vital new
infrastructure plan that will deliver water to the Karas Region in southern Namibia. It will provide irrigation for about 1 960 ha of land, promoting agriculture and employment in the subeconomic area of the country. Designed by Knight Piésold Consulting and constructed by Salini-Impregilo SpA (now Webuild SpA), the dam is the largest in Namibia and located 40 km west of the small town of Keetmanshoop. Its completion marks the first phase of the Neckartal Irrigation Scheme, which, through irrigation, will improve the region’s agricultural development. The project may be extended in future with a second phase, which will increase the irrigatable land to approximately 5 000 ha. The Fish River’s water volume, impounded by the dam, through deliberate releases, will flow downstream for 13 km to reach an abstraction weir. From there, quantities of water will be pumped from the adjacent pump station to a holding dam in an approximately 9 km long steel pipeline 1.1 m in diameter, from where it will be routed to the irrigation areas for agricultural use as needed. The dam was built using the rollercompacted concrete construction technique and is 78.5 m high with a crest length of 518 m. The dam has a storage volume of 857 million m3, extending over a 39 km2 surface area at its full supply level. Construction required over 1.1 million man-hours over a period from 2018 to 2020, where zero workdays were lost due to injury – a record-breaking health and safety feat for the contractor. In Keetmanshoop and the surrounding areas, the project created a total of 5 500 jobs; 3 000 workers were hired directly and 2 500 indirectly, with 65% of these workers coming from the Karas Region. Now complete, this environmentally sustainable project has ensured ongoing water supply and food security.
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