Lake Otjikoto filled to the brim
Not only has the good rainfall in the north of the country in recent weeks brought huge relief to farmers, it has also led to the flooding of a national heritage site.Lake Otjikoto, which is located about 20 km northwest of Tsumeb, has reached its saturation point for the first time in almost five decades due to the heavy rainfall.
The lake, which was declared a national monument in 1972 by the National Monuments Board of South Africa, is also one of Namibia’s heritage sites, with this natural wonder also a popular tourist attraction.
According to the National Heritage Council, Lake Otjikoto was formed by a karst process during which the ceiling of a cave collapsed. Karst is a topography formed by the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite.
In 1851, Charles Andersson, John Allen and Francis Galton, authors of a book on Southern Africa, first visited the lake, followed by geologist Dr. P. Hermann in 1911. The botanist Kurt Diner also collected a number of unknown species here. When the “Schutztruppe” surrendered to the Union troops in 1915, they threw their weapons into the lake, which according to Guenther Walbaum included 30 cannons and 400 to 500 boxes of ammunition.
However, the South African soldiers were able to easily retrieve them from the lake, as they lay on a rock only 3 meters from the surface. Two small field guns recovered from the lake adorned the Tintenpalast in Windhoek for years, while others are housed in the museum in Tsumeb. – [email protected]