14 Mar 2018

Parliament has approved a budget proposal of P4 195 935 091 for the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services for the 2018/19 financial year, which shows an increase of 14.65 per cent from the current financial year.

Presenting the budget estimates on Tuesday, Minister Prince Maele explained that they included P910 129 510 recurrent expenditure and P3 285 805 581 development estimates.

Mr Maele pointed that P529 968 640 from the recurrent budget had been allocated for Revenue Support Grant for the 12 land boards and their subordinate authorities. He said the remaining P380 160 870 of the recurrent budget would be spent on the ministry’s departments.

The minister further explained that P1 843 444 288 from the development budget had been allocated to the Water Supply and Pipelines Programme. 

Mr Maele added that the second largest share of P984 350 000 had been allocated to the Water Sanitation Networks Programme, while P349 million had been allocated to projects under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP).

He said ESP projects included land servicing projects, construction of land board offices, and equipping of Kgalagadi North boreholes.

When briefing Parliament about the ministry’s performance in the current financial year, Mr Maele said while implementation of the Land Policy of 2017 was ongoing, there had been issues relating to illegibility criteria for allocation including by married spouses and inheritance of applications, among others.

He added that the LAPCAS programme had progressed well with a total of 826 646 plots having been surveyed in tribal land. He said 718 000 of those plots were already registered by owners. “The next phase of the project will be the survey and land rights registration of ploughing fields, ranches, boreholes and other allocations.

The new land title document that will result from the LAPCAS project, which will have enhanced security features, is planned for issuance immediately following the approval of the Tribal Land Act, Deeds Registry (Amendment) Act and the Electronic Communication Bill,” said the minister. Mr Maele further said his ministry, in conjunction with the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) and Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC), had engaged other sectors and land authorities on reservation of land according to identified development nodes and viable economic opportunities.

He said to this end, the land had been reserved for livestock, agribusiness and tourism in various parts of the country.

Mr Maele further said the ministry continued to prioritise provision of serviced land in order to facilitate economic development.

“In this regard, 50 per cent of the planned land servicing projects had been completed. 

These projects have yielded 21 131 plots out of a target of 37 000. Nine of the projects are ongoing at different stages while 12 are still at various levels of tendering,” Mr Maele said.

The minister also said government was constructing pipelines and associated structures to transfer water from sources to consumers. He noted that Masama wellfield was being developed to address acute water shortage in the Greater Gaborone area and that it would be commissioned next month.

He further said the Mmamashia-Kanye NSC connection pipeline to supply Thamaga, Moshupa and Kanye was scheduled for completion in September.

He added that the pre-construction activities of the Molepolole NSC connection pipeline would commence in the 2018/19 financial year. The budget proposal by the minister was passed by Parliament on yesterday. Ends