16 May 2017

Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Prince Maele has reiterated the importance of water provision to the nation, especially that Botswana is semi-dry.

Speaking during his tour of Masama West well fields on May 15, Minister Maele said the project was important as the country had to prepare for hard times when there was shortage of water.

He said despite recent rainfalls, which filled many dams across the country, there was need to prepare for a time when the country experiences shortage of rainfall.

Minister Maele said Masama well fields project would go a long way in helping augment shortage in many villages and towns that are experiencing water shortage at the moment.

He said such villages as Molepolole and Kanye continue to experience water shortage.

“Therefore there is a need to speed up the completion of this project so that Batswana can be provided with water.”

He added that villages in the southern part of the country continued to go without water, a problem that needed to be addressed urgently.

The water services minister further said the project was among those that government intended to carry to harvest water and ease water provision to the rest of the country.

Mr Maele said he visited the project because he was worried about the delay of the project.

He said the contractor should complete the project on time and on budget, adding that he was willing to assist the project leaders with anything they might need from time to time.

When giving the project overview, Consolidated Contractors Company project manager, Mr Talil El-Ahi said the project included the design, supply, installation, construction and commissioning of Masama West well field into North-South Carrier (NSC) 2.2.

He said they would design and construct to integrate 24 boreholes into a 33 million litres reinforced steel concrete reservoir, which would then be injected into NSC 2.2 with a provision of NSC 1.

Mr El-Ahi further said the project duration was 12 months and was started last year March to be completed March 2017, but there were delays in the award of environmental impact assessment for reservoir and pipeline, which were planned for last year.

He said that currently there was potential delay with power supply to the project.

Mr El-Ahi said their forecast plan was to complete the project next January.

He said the scope of the project included, among others, 33 mega litres reinforced steel concrete reservoir, pump station injecting 450litre/second into NSC 2.2 with connection to NSC1 and 24 boreholes with yields ranging from 25m3/hour to 115m3/hour with intake depth from 150 metres to 299 metres.

Consolidated Contractors Company Africa manager, Mr Walid Jabara said they were committed to completing the project well on time as they had done so before and been involved in many projects in Botswana for the past 20 years.

He said the presence of the minister had given them the strength as a company to deliver the project well on time, according to budget and above expectation. ENDS