Namib Times Virtual Edition

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N$3

SERVING THE COASTAL COMMUNITY SINCE 1958

NO6373

FRIDAY 25 JULY 2014

Tel +264 64 205 854/+264 64 461 866/Fax +264 64 204 813/+264 64 461 824/Website www.namibtimes.net © World Future Council

inside

Traffic officers

In response to critical shortages and the price of water at the coast, Rössing Uranium Mine now plans to construct its own desalination plant near Swakopmund.

The missing link?

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Sailing solo

Windhoek Mayor Agnes Kafula (left) and Walvis Bay Mayor Uillika Nambahu presenting recommendations on Food and Nutrition Security See article on page 2

Reinhardt

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Shooting star

Normal Selling Price N$9.99 each Page 32

to build new desalination plant Jade McClune

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Rössing

Woman goes on rampage

Madelaine Laubscher and Piquet Jacobs A woman went on a rampage at the office of the namib times on Wednesday morning, destroying a computer and verbally attacked office staff, angered by a request from a journalist to submit a written account of her story.

Ms Merlyn Ehileme requested a journalist on Monday to have her life story published. “I am a medical doctor, a reporter, a prophetess,” she proclaimed and alleged that her father and her husband were murdered by her aunt and she wanted to expose this in the newspaper. She further alleged that her aunt attempted to kill her the previous day. “My family has tried to get their hands on my fortune and to silence me by putting me into a mental institute. My children have been abducted and are hidden from me in Nigeria,” she charged. Due to the seriousness of her allegations the journal-

ist requested Ms Ehileme to write a full account of her story and send it via email to ensure accuracy. She told the journalist that she was flying to Windhoek later that evening to conduct some operations on patients, but agreed to email her story. When she returned to the newspaper’s office on Wednesday morning, she demanded that the journalist write her story instead. The insistence by the journalist for Ehileme to submit a written account angered her and she became aggressive. She made death threats to the journalist and personnel at the reception area. “I will not send an email.

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My husband (which she previously stated was allegedly murdered) told me not to write an email. You will listen to me now,” she started shouting and swearing. Another journalist was requested to come and defuse the situation. He also told her to email the story as agreed on Monday. Chaos erupted. Ehileme grabbed a paper punch and a stapler and threw the objects in the direction of the employees yelling, ‘I will not email my story to you” and accused the reporters of wanting to steal her story. She attempted to grab and smash the computer monitor at the reception but was

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prevented from doing so by one of the journalists. This further fuelled her fury and she leaned forward to grab one of the female employees whose screams caused more of the staff members to rush to the reception area. When Ehileme realised that her efforts were thwarted, she turned around and walked out of the office. The receptionist pressed the panic button and called the police. G4S personnel arrived and after getting an explanation of what had transpired, they went searching for Ehileme. She was found in a local electrical store looking at appliances. When the security officer approached

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The proposed plant will be located at the existing Swakopmund Salt Works, about 6 km north of Swakopmund and would produce around three million cubic metres of water per year. The mine has, since November 2013, been supplied with desalinated water from Areva’s desalination plant near Wlotzkasbaken, but could not reach agreement with Areva over the cost. In a statement released on Thursday, the company said that “as a result of low uranium market prices, Rössing Uranium is looking at ways to improve its economic viability… Currently, Rössing Uranium purchases desalinated water for its mining operations at significant cost.” The mine indicated that the terms offered by Areva were not “economically feasible”, therefore it was decided to construct

a new plant to supply the mine’s water needs. In recent times, the region relied mainly on the Omdel aquifer for its water supply, but the further expansion and sustainability of mining operations in the region have been severely hampered by the gradual depletion of the underground water resources in the Omaruru Delta (Omdel) aquifer. The Omdel previously supplied the coastal towns and mines in the Erongo Region with millions of cubic metres of freshwater per year. In response to the situation, Rössing intends to set up a Modular Seawater Reverse Osmosis desalination plant with the capacity to produce 8 200m³ per day. Over the past decade NamWater has also repeatedly threatened to build its own desalination plant at Mile 6 and justified regularly increasing the tariffs for Continues on page 2

Map of the location of the new plant

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