08 Jul 2015

Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources has set up a project management office to look at major projects on water and power to ensure that the right things are done at the right time.

This was said by the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Mr Kitso Mokaila, in response to Gaborone North MP, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa’s urgent motion requesting parliament to task the Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises Committee to investigate the current water and power crisis in the country.

As the minister responsible for water and power in the country, Mr Mokaila said he did not support Mr Nkaigwa’s urgent motion, as it came at a time when the power was fairly stable in the country right now.

Currently, he said there was some element of stability on power outages and were currently not as badly as they were, because Morupule B was giving more than the expected at this point in time.

“We have two units running and a third one coming this week. But, the fact of the matter is that the outages are not as bad as they were. I am not denying there are and there will still be outages,” he added.

Government’s plan, Mr Mokaila said was to have power self-sufficiency by 2012, by having Morupule B running. However, he said, Morupule B had encountered problems.

Initially, the minister said government had confidence that the contractor would do the right thing, but the contractor had not done the right thing. 

To address this matter, he said, “we have taken the responsibility of the repairs at his cost to ourselves through the agent or the original equipment manufacturers to fix the problems.”

The minister said he had never been shy to say “we have problems and we are dealing with the problem,” he added.

He also explained that power outages did not always mean there was load shedding, but could also mean that there was a fault.

Mr Mokaila stressed that government had a National Water Master Plan and an Energy Built Programme in place, which he said were well both suited to address issues of water and power in the country.

However, he said the country’s economy, had grown and continued to grow at a very fast rate calling for the processes being used to keep up with the growth.

For instance, he said Gaborone uses or used to use 150 million litres of water a day. With water rationing, he said “we have now brought it down to 110 million litres a day. And, in fact we are demonstrating that 110 million litres a day, given what we have, is probably a little too much and we might have to go back to 111 million litres of water a day.”

“But, this, must also be hand in hand in understanding issues of climate change, global warming, reduction in rainfall and all other water efficiency issues,” he added.

He said there was situational analysis of the country in terms of the power needs, adding that currently, Botswana peak of winter was around 620 megawatts; whilst water for greater Gaborone was currently 150 million litres a day. 

“We believe, we will be growing at around 50 megawatts a year, and for water, we have come up with a very comprehensive plan looking at all the constituencies around the country and underground water,” he added.

Ministry’s plans and decisions on water and power issues, Mr Mokaila said depended on national priorities at the time, but also bearing in mind that water and power were the energisers of any economy. ENDS