01 Feb 2016

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ralotsia had urged the management of Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Maun abattoir to fast track the drilling and connection of boreholes to address water shortage.

He expressed disappointment that the abattoir had to halt production because of water shortage, adding that the matter was not an emergency as the drilling of boreholes had long been planned and funded.

He expressed the views during a tour of the abattoir, stating that last year they were made aware of the likely shortage of water as a result of the river drying up, and that an agreement for the abattoir to dig a borehole was made.

Mr Ralotsia blamed the BMC management for delaying the project. 

He said the abattoir has an advanced water purification plant which could even be used to bottle water, adding that the plant was idling while the abattoir was incurring unnecessary expenses to source water.

“I was shocked to learn that business was halted at the abattoir because of water shortage, and that has resulted in a stand-off with farmers who had brought their cattle to the Matsaudi collection point only to be told by BMC to release them,” he added.

The minister observed that the dispute came as a result of the severe drought that has affected farmers, adding that it was painful to tell them to release the cattle.

Mr Ralotsia said the response by management indicated that BMC was not up to the challenge, and urged officers to up their game as the Ngamiland community depended on cattle to make ends meet.

 He said BMC as a government parastatal needs intensive care but that at times officers do not exercise due diligence and treat issues as normal while they were not. He said the government could not continue to pump money in projects under the pretex that they would help people yet nothing was being done.

The minister appealed to BMC employees to provide best service to customers. 

He said the plant was upgraded with the aim to increase the slaughtering capacity, but that slaughtering days have now been reduced.

Since the plant experienced water shortage, a decision was taken to slaughter cattle three times in a week until the situation was back to normal. 

Mr Ralotsia noted that it means that the plant was running at a loss as it was supposed to kill 2 400 cattle per month and now slaughters 1 440.

“You should speed up the process to avail water in the plant as soon as possible and ensure production runs as planned,” he advised.

For his part, the plant manager, Mr Oabona Ramotshwara informed the minister that all the paper work has been completed and that tenders had been awarded.

He said they expected the contractor to be on site on February 1. 

It was reported that the project could take five days to be completed if all the equipment was procured.

Mr Ramotshwara said it was unfortunate that no company in Maun submitted a quotation, and that only two companies from Ghanzi and Gaborone submitted. 

He also said plans to secure more water from Water Utilities Corporation were promising, adding that their plan was to slaughter for five days as expected. Ends