22 Jul 2019

 Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo on July 20 visited a Kasane based water purification company, Chobe Pure that trades as Eden Drops.

In an interview the minister said the purpose of her visit was to evaluate the impact of the statutory instrument that restricted the importation of water into Botswana and to appreciate the challenges that the company faces with the view of intervening in order to help the company together with other businesses in the country to grow and impact positively on the economy.

Minister Kenewendo said government through the trade ministry was committed to ensuring growth of locally owned businesses and encouraged the company to exhaust all possibilities of meeting the water demand in the northern part of the country prior to penetrating the southern part.

She appreciated that the policy on the restriction of the importation of water worked well towards increasing the water demand from Chobe Pure.

The company’s director Mr Motlhagodi Lamont commended the government for the policy adding that his company benefited as the demand increased and now it supplied retailers.

He said apart from the retail stores the company supplies lodges, tour operators and the government with branded bottled water, including local lodges, as well as four lodges in Namibia.

Mr Lamont explained that the company, which started in 2012 with only water purification has with the help of Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) expanded to manufacture water bottles in the sizes of 330ml, 500ml, 1litre and 5litre which they use for their purified water.

He said while they source water from Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) they purified the water through reverse osmosis.

Some challenges, he said included high transport costs and delay in supply as they procured raw materials from Gaborone, South Africa, Germany and China. ENDS