Elof Hansson Hydrogen Namibia, in collaboration with German technology suppliers, has initiated public participation in a desalination plant project at Walvis Bay, which aims to supply a planned green hydrogen and ammonia project inland.
The developer has issued a Background Information Document, inviting interested and affected parties to register for the Environmental Impact Assessment and submit their initial comments, which will be forwarded to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism.
The scheme centres on a reverse-osmosis plant near Dune 7 on Portion 7 of Farm 58, between the Walvis Bay airport and the dunes.
Each day, the facility would draw about 7,580 cubic metres of seawater and produce roughly 2,160 cubic metres of distilled water, the ultra-pure feedstock needed for alkaline electrolysis.
Unlike earlier coastal plants that rely on grid electricity, this one is designed to run on clean power from a 2.1-gigawatt photovoltaic solar farm tied to the same hydrogen-ammonia complex.
Water and pipelines stitch the coastal site to the desert. Seawater would travel along a 15-kilometre corridor to the plant, and after treatment, a parallel line would return the brine to the ocean.
The product water would then be pumped about 70 kilometres east to a storage reservoir at the Remainder of Farm Geluk No. 116, where the electrolysers, ammonia synthesis units and the central solar installation are planned.
The proponent states that the pipeline alignments follow existing servitudes wherever possible, with new rights-of-way to be formalised.
The footprint is situated in an industrially zoned stretch of desert with sparse vegetation.
However, the intake corridor passes through a coastline habitat known for Damara tern breeding, and the product-water line crosses the Namib-Naukluft Park.
The indicative routing has been mapped to avoid Welwitschia mirabilis fields and popular tourist stops, and specialist studies will guide final mitigation.
At Geluk, the landscape already hosts mining and is earmarked in regional planning for industrial activity.
Marine works carry their risks.
Building the intake and outfall will disturb the seabed sands and temporarily raise turbidity, which can reduce light penetration in the near-shore water column.
During operations, the outfall must dilute and disperse brine to prevent local salinity buildup, and pretreatment chemicals, such as chlorine, must be neutralised before discharge.
Intake design will require low velocities and screening to minimise entrainment and impingement of marine life, and offshore alignments will be evaluated against shipping routes.
On land, the headline construction impacts include visual change along the corridors, dust, waste management, the risk of land scarring from off-track driving and incidental harm to hardy desert plants; the plan is to transplant any affected Welwitschias.
A heritage assessment will precede groundworks, with a stop-work protocol in place if any artefacts are discovered.
Socio-economically, the project promises jobs and local procurement alongside the familiar pressures that large builds can bring, such as temporary in-migration and minor crime, which the proponent says will be managed in site plans.
By law, the project is required to undergo a full Environmental Impact Assessment and obtain an Environmental Clearance Certificate under the Environmental Management Act and the 2012 EIA Regulations.
The listed activities include industrial seawater abstraction, construction below the high-water mark, brine discharge, and the installation of long-distance bulk pipelines.
Separate permissions are required for marine effluent and related works.
The EIA will proceed through scoping, specialist studies, and the development of a draft environmental management plan before being submitted to the competent authority and then forwarded to the environment ministry for a decision, with the right of appeal available if necessary.
Green hydrogen production hinges on dependable volumes of ultra-pure water.
By pairing a modest-scale coastal desalination plant with solar-powered electrolysis and ammonia synthesis inland, and by linking both to export logistics at Walvis Bay, the developers are proposing a coast-to-desert water-to-fuel chain.
Whether it proceeds will depend on the outcome of the environmental review, the engineering of a low-impact intake and outfall, and the project’s ability to align land, grid and pipeline approvals across a sensitive shoreline and a fragile desert.
Public comment during scoping will shape the conditions under which any approval is granted and, ultimately, how this new water infrastructure shares space with fisheries, tourism and the ecosystems that make Namibia’s coast unique.
