18 Feb 2013

Batswana who never shout the national slogan, Pula, might seem unpatriotic, but residents of Borotsi and Chadibe may be an exception given their recent awful experience with rain.

The slogan Pula, which means rain, is the most traditionally polite Setswana way of welcoming, bidding farewell and showing approval.

But for dwellers of the two villages in Tswapong South constituency, more rains would spell doom for them as they were still reeling from last week’s floods that reversed so much gains that they had accumulated in life so far.

For instance, Mr Onneile Sekgantsho, 24, of Daily Veggies Farms in Borotsi, has suffered a huge loss amounting to over P20 000 after his farm was literally washed by the floods.

“If it was not for the strong roots of the maize, I could have suffered a complete loss,” he said in an interview. The unprecedented floods have destroyed ripe tomatoes, cabbage, beetroots, spinach, onions and maize.

Unfortunately, he said, there was no way that government could assist him as floods were categorised as natural disasters despite him being a beneficiary of the Youth Grant.

Mr Sekgantsho, who received funding through the Youth Grant, said unfortunately there was nothing the government could assist him with as it was a natural catastrophe.

So far he has already prepared the land for ploughing as he has “a few” seedlings of cabbage left while he had to dig from his pocket for other vegetables.

Mr Sekgantsho said it would not be easy since he does not have his own machinery as he has to hire around which becomes difficult especially during the ploughing season.

What pained him most, he said, was that he used hybrid seeds which do not come cheap and thus exacerbated his loss. He said he has applied for other government programmes such as Young Farmers Fund and ISPAAD for horticulture. From this he said he has learnt to insure his crops from disasters like these. 

For Ms Kebagaletse Mobita, also of Borotsi, the impact of the floods was visible even from the street as her belongings, a bed and clothing, were still in the sun being dried.

For her, the flood was a nightmare as never in her life had she seen that amount of water.

It was around 4am when she and her relatives including her two children woke up to the sound of water as it gushed through the door. “Water just rushed in and it made such a noise that we woke up,” she said.

Earlier, there was a light drizzle which did not produce much rain. “We are still wondering what could have caused the flooding as the rain was not that heavy,” she said.

As the water was at waist level, she put one of her children in the window sill while the other was on her back. However, the biggest challenge was on a one-month child whose mother also resorted to put on her back.

“It was chaotic as the bed had sunken,” she said adding that they spent the remainder of the night standing until at around 7am when the water level was low.

Ms Sekgantsho said several of their belongings including food were destroyed as their clothes were still covered with mud. “The students were lucky because we put their books over the table otherwise they could have also been destroyed,” she said.

Other than clothing, they lost 15 chickens that drowned. 

The students have been provided with new uniforms by the Department of Social Welfare who have also provided a food basket plus blankets from the President who visited the area immediately after.

In Chadibe, residents there blame the trench which has been dug saying it changed the water path resulting with flooding. According to some residents, Mr Abueng Rankosha and Ms Mmamolefe Lucas, had it not been because of the trench, water could have easily flowed to the rivers.

They said although they experience flooding every year, this was the worst they have witnessed in their entire life.

An elderly who had come to the village kgotla for her pension, said had it not been the speedy response from government, she could have had nothing to eat for the entire week.

Mr Rankosha also could not save his belongings and other than food, and chickens, he has also lost cement as the bags got wet. ENDS