The City of Windhoek is demanding nearly N$25 million from Namibia Dairies after a technical fault at the company’s Avis plant resulted in approximately 6 000 litres of heavy fuel being released into the capital city’s sewerage system in February 2019.
CoW told a status hearing convened in the Windhoek High Court on Thursday that fish from Windhoek’s Goreangab dam were flushed to shores as a result of the spillage.
The City Fathers said they suffered damages amounting to N$7,041,009.52 in relation to the costs of cleaning up the oil spill and remediating the damage.
According to particulars of claim, N$200,000.00 was spent on cleaning-up and other activities, while N$666,410.06 was spent on Biosolids Solution for 20 days, N$492,847.41 on Bioenergy and N$1,989,749.88 on clean-up activities by Rent-a-Drum taken to landfill.
In addition, N$2,852,667.23 was spent on clean-up activities by Wesco, N$245,779.94 in the removal of Hazardous Waste to Kupferberg, N$250,000.00 in sewerage reticulation, and N$343,555.00 in St Michaels River clean-up and adjacent sites.
“We also lost damages of N$17,492,757.90 in respect of water lost for production from 03-22 February 2019 for 20 days at wastewater treatment tariff, a loss resulting from the difference between the tariffs of NamWater and WINGOC of water purchased from NamWater and daily fixed charges for the period 4 February 2019 to 8 March 2019 incurred by CoW,” the city said in the claims.
City of Windhoek insists that the oil spillage was unlawful and a result of negligence in that Namibia Dairies failed to take adequate steps to prevent an oil spill from occurring including regular inspections and testing of all plants including inspections and testing of the safety valve.
“When the oil spill occurred, the defendant knew, or ought reasonably to have known that the drains in the factory boiler room were connected to the sewer line and that an oil spill in the boiler room would cause the contamination of the sewer line and the Gammans WCW. The defendant failed to isolate the drains in the factory boiler room from the sewer line. The defendant failed to isolate the drains in the factory boiler room from the sewer line,” the city argues.
