16 Dec 2015

North West District  councillors have been informed that several water projects are underway in the district.

Delivering a speech during a full council meeting recently, the chairperson, Mr Reaboka Mbulawa, said the projects were meant to improve water distribution and quality.

He expressed confidence that once the projects are complete, they would make water shortage a thing of the past, thus paving way for the council to shift focus to other areas. He said of recent, the district had experienced high temperatures, which were a threat to the surface water sources. “I am told the pools where our surface water intakes are located in Maun have been showing a marked decline of water levels, which is indeed a threat to Maun’s water supply,” he added.

Mr Mbulawa explained that the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) was working resuscitating as many of the available boreholes as possible as a contingency measure, should the surface water run out.

He said the high temperatures had a marked effect on water demands, coupled with frequent breakdowns of old pipes and inadequate reservoirs had left some areas without water for some time.

He apologised on behalf of the corporation for prolonged non-supply at Boronyane and Sexaxa wards, adding that investigations had shown that supply had been affected by the Botswana Fibre Network works.

He said some valves had been closed and were covered by soil, therefore not visible to staff to rectify the problem while some lines had been cut off from the water mains, probably on assumptions that they were not live. 

Mr Mbulawa revealed that borehole siting at Shorobe had been completed and that the tender for drilling two boreholes, which were located about 2km on the eastern side of the existing boreholes, had been awarded with works scheduled to be completed by mid-February 2016.

He said depending on the adequacy of the borehole yields as well as satisfactory water quality, works would commence to connect the boreholes to the existing water supply scheme. Ends