Milan - March 17, 2020 – The Neckartal Dam is a fundamental infrastructure that will provide water for Namibia's desert. It will irrigate 5,000 hectares of land, promoting agriculture and employment. The dam, the largest in this southern African country, was built by Salini Impregilo and inaugurated just a few days ago.  It is the symbol of a Namibia that wishes to move forward after the emergencies of these past years, caused by the severe drought, by implementing environmentally sustainable works aimed at guaranteeing a secure water supply and the Country's food independence. 

Salini Impregilo built the dam located at 40 km west of Keetmanshoop, in the Karas region, in the southern part of Namibia. The infrastructure is part of the first phase of the Neckartal Irrigation Scheme (NIS), which through irrigation will guarantee the area's agricultural development, especially for cultivating products such as lucerne, grapes and dates. The water will be provided by the dam, subsequently flowing downhill for 13 km, until it finally reaches an extraction well. The NIS water supply system will then transport it to the irrigated areas, and then to then single agricultural areas.

The dam was built using the Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) construction technique. It is 78.5 metres high and 518 metres long.  By using the waters from the nearby rivers, it has a storage volume of 857 million cubic metres of water, over a 39 km2 area.

The dam was built with over 1.1 million hours  of zero lost work day injuries, since July 2018, a record-breaking feat in terms of Health and Safety. In Keetmanshoop and in the nearby areas, a total of 5,500 jobs were also created: 3,000 workers were hired directly and 2,500 indirectly. 65% of these workers came from the Karas region.

When the irrigation of the nearby areas will have reached its peak potential, an additional 4,000 jobs will be created (directly and indirectly). The dam, besides contributing to producing food for the region's farming, will also have a positive impact on tourism and the economy in general of Keetmanshoop and nearby areas.

Salini Impregilo has been active in Africa for almost 70 years in the construction of projects which have contributed to the economic and infrastructural growth of the continent and to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. The Group is one of the world leaders in infrastructure for the Water sector, according to the ENR ranking. The Group’s business sectors cover the entire water cycle, from supplying water for drinking and irrigation purposes to the final treatment of wastewater. Over 20 million people are served, each day, by the plants built by the Group's subsidiary, Fisia Italimpianti. An additional 14 million people will benefit from the hydraulic infrastructures currently being built by the Group, in addition to 7 thousand hectares of new irrigable land, thanks to the dams for irrigation purposes currently under construction.