ABSTRACT
The commercialization of water services in Namibia since the early 1990s has dramatically altered the social, political and economic landscape of this public service. This chapter seeks to explain the origin and development of these shifts in government water policy, with specific reference to the harmful effects of cost recovery on low income households. The chapter outlines the kind of community resistance that is emerging as a result of these commercialization/ privatization initiatives and concludes with suggestions for water policy reform.
In precolonial Namibia all water was obtained from natural springs, shallow wells in the beds of ephemeral rivers and surface water resources. When water resources dried up, populations migrated or, occasionally, perished in the severe droughts that periodically affect the country. Under German colonial rule, Namibia experienced the growth of towns and large-scale agriculture requiring more reliable sources of water. Wells were deepened and shallow boreholes were drilled.
