25 Apr 2014

Water scarcity is expected to be a thing of the past in Botswana once the Orange-Senqu river project is fully completed.

The initiative, run through a commission coined Orasecom, is expected to yield its first drops of water in Botswana in 2035.

Deputy permanent secretary in the Project Management Office of the minerals, energy and water resources ministry, Mr Thatayaone Dedede, noted in an interview that the mammoth exercise “is a long term project that has several stages because it involves four countries.”

The crux of the initiative is to optimise the benefit of the river on the people along its basin, which in Botswana is the Kgalagadi region which remains the most water stressed area nationally. “From a broader perspective we intend to eventually widen it to the greater Gaborone especially the Borolong area,” says Mr Dedede.

The rollout of the project will start with a desktop study guided by a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa.

The first part of the study, notes Mr Dedede, will be funded through National Development Plan 10 from the Botswana side.

To that regard, World Bank has given Botswana a grant of US$2 million for purposes of conducting a desktop study.

Simply put, a desktop study will check whether water is available, at what quantity, possible routes for pipes and all other available literature.

“Our expectation is that by February 2015 the desktop study should be complete.”

So far the ministry has flighted Expression of Interest to carry out the study of which six companies have been shortlisted. Mr Dedede says the three partners will fund the second leg of the study which will be purely geotechnical, whose result will produce a cost estimate.

“For us the project will provide a cost saving option because so far we spend a lot of money on pumping but since Lesotho is high it will just be flowing downstream,” said Mr Dedede.

He also says Botswana will surely save on treatment because water from Lesotho is so close to being pure.

Botswana’s preliminary demand in the Orange-Senqu is to draw 20 million cubic metres annually. “If we cannot have that quantity then it might not be feasible for us.”

Currently, Letsibogo Dam stands at 100 million cubic metres at full capacity while Dikgatlhong is 400 cubic metres.water

The country, meanwhile, is not just staying put awaiting the Orange-Senqu project while water scarcity continues.

“We have advanced our infrastructure planning through the North-South Water Carrier because we have placed a tank in Kgoro in the Borolong area to enhance rollout.”

In the meantime, pipelines are being built from South Africa to Middlepits, Bogogobo, Kolonkwaneng, Gakhibana and Khuis whose water they should be drinking next month. ENDS