With no perennial rivers and a fast-growing population, Windhoek concluded in 1960 that reclaiming water from its sewage works was not one option among several but the only feasible path to a secure supply. In 1968, the city commissioned the world’s first Direct Potable Reclamation (DPR) plant, which came online just in time to help the city through a drought and immediately covered 15–25% of its drinking water. Nearly six decades later, reuse is no longer an emergency measure but a permanent, data-driven part of the city’s water strategy: expanded gradually, with a deliberate cap on its share, and paired with demand management, leak reduction, and aquifer recharge so the city never depends on a single source.