18 Feb 2015

Water Utilities Cooperation (WUC) in partnership with Department of Waters Affairs released water from the Ntimbale Dam on Monday, February 16 for nine days.

WUC water resources manager, Mr Moeti Matswiri said the primary objective of the release was for the environmental flow release.

He noted that about 1.49 million cubic meters of water would be released to the environment, adding that Ntimbale Dam has a capacity of 26 000 000 cubic metres.

Mr Matswiri said, “We are not releasing water for commercial use down the stream, but it is for the purpose of managing the ecosystem,’’ he said.

He said the release was done as compensation for downstream environmental flow requirements and it was in line with the established guidelines on environmental flow release from dams when they get full.

Mr Matswiri said the dam is sitting on Limpopo River basin, and as a member of the River Basin Organisation, they have to abide by the calls of the basin of releasing the water.

Botswana is a member of SADC and there are SADC protocols that warrant that no infrastructure should harm the ecosystem, adding that building a dam should not hamper the normal life of the people living along or down the stream.

Consequently, he noted that in 2013, WUC launched the Integrated Water Resource Management plan in accordance with the dam cooperation for water usages.

He added that before the release, they did an environmental flow release study to determine when to release water, how much water to release and conditions that prescribe to effect the releases.

Mr Matswiri also said WUC has Graph National Water policy that also detects the release of water.

In addition, he said the policy states that priority should be given to domestic water supply while the second should be water intended for the environment.

Mr Matswiri said the study was conducted by an independent consultant and it was adopted by both WUC and Department of Water Affairs. The study recommended the release to be done in November 2014 and February 2015, depending on the level of the water in the dam.

The inflow for that rainy season also detects whether to release water or not and if the dam is below the minimum operating level, no release will be done, and if the dam is above the full supply level, water will be released.

Mr Matswiri said because the dam is above 90 per cent and there had been an inflow from November 2014 till to date, they decided to effect the release.

Mr Matswiri said they should have released water in November 2014, but because of the pattern of the rainfall, the dam did not impound anything between October and November 2014 hence there was no water released. It was in 2013 when the corporation released water for three days, he noted.

He said the dam complex includes pump stations and a water treatment plant and it supplies water to villages in the North East District.

Furthermore, he advised the public, all interested and affected parties downstream to be on alert as the flow, although regulated might pose a safety risk.

He also reminded the public that water restriction and water rationing were still in effect and encouraged all to conserve water. ENDS