10 Mar 2015

Maun residents have welcomed the proposed transmission line project that will pass through Toteng to Shakawe in the North West District.

The residents welcomed the project during a kgotla meeting addressed by the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) officials and Geoarchaeology Research Group about the environmental and social impact assessment for the proposed 400KV transmission line from Morupule.

Some residents said issues of compensation of properties that might be affected by the transmission line should be a priority of the government, as well as employment of the locals by the contractors that would be engaged in the multi-billion Pula project.

They argued that such huge projects should benefit the locals by creating employment for them hence the need to guard against contractors bringing their own unskilled labour.

BPC Way leave Officer, Mr Enock Rampha said the proposed transmission line was a bigger line of 400KV, which would be from Morupule in Palapye with a sub-station in Letlhakane to Mawana near Maun, where another sub-station would be, which would transmit electricity to a sub-station in Toteng village.

Mr Rampha said the Toteng sub-station would have one line, which would go to Gantsi district while the other line would pass through Sehithwa to Shakawe. Furthermore, he said Maun was growing faster and it was evident that the current electricity, which came from Francistown, was not enough to serve the Maun population and businesses. 

He noted that the transmission line project was crucial for North West region with the developments of mines in the region such as the recently closed DML Boseto mine in Toteng. 

Mr Rampha said currently, BPC was not able to serve the mines with electricity and that proved to be costly for the mine since they self-generated their own electricity. 

He said the transmission line project is expected to begin at the end of this year and completed in 2018, and is hoped to boost the North West region electricity supply after completion.  However, Mr Rampha said the construction of the line required land, which meants that residential plots, farms and cattle posts might be affected, hence the consultation meetings were vital. 

On issues of compensation of the affected, Mr Rampha said BPC would follow the government compensation guidelines and try as much as possible to avoid relocations. 

Mr Casmir Ketlhalefile of Geoarchaeology Research Group responsible for the social and environmental impact survey of the transmission line project said the consultations were necessary to eliminate conflicts that might be caused by the project.  ENDS