25 Nov 2018

Botswana is said to have exploited all its suitable sites for dam construction.

This was confirmed by Mr Ogopotse Pule, who is a member of the Limpopo technical task team while giving an overview on the challenges faced by the Limpopo River Basin (LRB), during stakeholders’ workshop organised by Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM) in Francistown recently.

He explained that all the nine major dams in Botswana were within the LRB and that most of the population in Botswana lived within the basin.

This, he observed, was a testimony on why the demand for water was high in the eastern part of the country.

Mr Pule said one of the challenges faced by LRB was that of climate change as there was a high variability of annual run-off related to highly variable rainfall patterns, limiting the safe yields of dams.

He further stated that there were also high water losses of up to 40 per cent in most villages near the basin due to deteriorated pipe network, adding that most surface waters were subjected to compliance with SADC protocol on shared water courses.

The other challenge, he said was that of recurring droughts which led to constraints on water resources and subjected to many competing demands that included agricultural sector at 42 per cent, mining at 23 per cent while the remaining 25 per cent went to domestic consumption.

Mr Pule observed that water demand was high in Gaborone, as the city was densely populated, followed by the second city of Francistown, while Kgalagadi and Ghanzi have lesser water stress and survived through ground water.

On other issues, Mr Pule told participants that the department of water and sanitation, formerly water affairs, had been given a heavy load of handling portable and waste water.

He said this was the reason why water was managed at the lowest level to involve the community, adding that water conservation and demand management was the key in Botswana as a water-stressed country.

However, participants raised a concern that water pollution in Botswana was the major challenge citing an example of the dying Tati River due to human activities.

They said some factories in Francistown spilled hazardous chemicals into the river and called on the LIMCOM to intervene.

The objective of the national consultative workshop was to increase understanding of the benefits from trans-boundary water cooperation in the LRB and also to understand the challenges and opportunities in the basin.
The other aim was to engage national stakeholders to understand their aspirations towards updating the vision, for the sustainable development and management of water resources, that accommodates perspective from each of the Riparian States as well as to discuss a set of principles and guidelines that will underpin the development scenarios processes.

LIMCOM has already held similar workshops in countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.
The Limpopo basin is located in Southern Africa and covers an area of 416 296 kilometres, spreading over four countries of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The basin is the most highly developed basin in the SADC region and supports a significant population, including some of the region’s poorest and richest communities.

The basin has numerous urban and commercial areas, subsistence farming communities, as well as important forestry resources and mines. Ends