11 Oct 2018

Government does not discriminate when distributing development to Batswana, says Minister of lands management, water and sanitation services, Mr Kefentse Mzwinila.

He told residents of Mosetse in the Nata/Gweta constituency that government had all Batswana interest at heart, hence equitable distribution of resources.

Mr Mzwinila  was speaking at a kgotla meeting yesterday following complaints by residents that despite being in the vicinity of dams such as Ntimbale and Shashe, there was shortage of water in the village.

Minister Mzwinila pointed out that the whole country was faced with water shortage, the situation the government was doing all it could to address. He said government had prioritised availability of portable water to all Batswana, but despite that there were challenges.

He noted that Botswana, compared to other Southern African countries, had serious shortage of water due to scarcity of rainfall, leading to low ground water, adding that government was currently formulating a long term strategy to address the situation.

In the case of Mosetse, he said government had secured P195 million from the World Bank to be used for Sowa water master plan where there would be construction of a treatment plant and pipeline  from Dukwi well fields to reticulate water even to other villages in the Nata/Gweta constituency. The construction of the pipeline and the treatment plant is expected to commence early next year and the whole project is to take 18 months.

Further, he stated that the long term solution however did not mean that the plan for construction of Mosetse dam had been abandoned, instead it would be considered in National Development Plan 12.

He said Mosetse dam needed about P800 million, which the government did not have. ENDs