Field Campaign in Namibia, October 2025

In October 2025, the WaMiSAR team once again traveled to Namibia to collect essential water and soil samples and to expand the project’s in-situ monitoring network.
During the first week in Tsumeb, Prof. Dr. Stefan Norra and Karoline Kny (Uni Potsdam) installed a new weather station that now records temperature, humidity, and precipitation at high resolution. Thanks to the strong support of the local team—especially Kamuiiua Kamundu (Sinomine)—the system was fully operational within days. Two custom-built low-cost soil sensors complement the station by measuring soil moisture, pore humidity, and temperature. An excavator enabled the collection of deeper tailings samples, providing valuable material for further analysis.
The next site was the former Matchless copper mine near Windhoek. Along a transect, the team collected soil, plant, and water samples, with particular interest in the highly acidic drainage.
The final week took the team to Rosh Pinah in the far south, joined by Florian Blum (Hydroisotop) and Paulina Nangombe (RPZC). After completing water sampling, additional soil sensors were installed and soil samples from multiple depth levels were collected.

Summer School and Symposium in Lusaka, Zambia

To round off the campaign, Kamuiiua Kamundu, Vazembua Tjizoo, Florian Blum and Karoline Kny participated in the WASA Summer School in Lusaka. The program offered an engaging introduction to the diverse WASA initiatives and fostered exchange with students and researchers from across southern Africa. The three-day WaterNet Symposium that followed featured a dedicated WASA Special Session, where key results from the WaMiSAR project were presented.