10 Oct 2019

Thamaga village now has water following Tuesday’s commissioning of the long awaited Gamononyane pump station,  which is part of the Mmamashia-Kanye North South Courier (NSC) connection project.

Commissioning the station, Minister of Land Management Water and Sanitation Services Mr Kefentse Mzwinila explained that the pump station collected three million litres per hour from Mmamashia Treatment Plant. 

Out of the three million litres, 1.4 million litres is pumped to Thamaga Pump Station to supply Thamaga village whereas 1.1 million litres will be pumped to Molepolole after completion of Mmanoko Pump Station. 

The balance will be used to supply Diremogolo and Kopong villages.

Minister Mzwinila said the development would result in improved water supply in the mentioned villages.

Responding to Kgosi Raphale Mmipi of Metsimotlhabe’s plea for Gamononyane residents to benefit since they were hosting the infrastructure, the minister directed Water Utilities Corporation to connect a prepaid standpipe in a month’s time.

Minister Mzwinila took full advantage of the event to explain how water as a scarce resource had impacted the country as well as stating government's plans to address the challenges.

Low and erratic rainfall patterns coupled with frequent severe droughts had impacted negatively on livelihoods, he said.  

He said spatial mismatch between abundant water resources and high water demand areas, which required an increasing number of large and expensive schemes to transfer water from northern Botswana to the southern part of the country added to the challenges as the programmes were not only costly but took long to build.

The sparsely spread population added salt to the wound because it made delivery of water services costly, the minister said.

He further explained that water supply services evolved over time with the main focus predominantly on the processing industries such as mines and provision of water for human consumption.

However, he said over the course of time increasing demand emerged from a wide range of other sectors of the such as agriculture. 

In order to address demand challenges, Minister Mzwinila said the 2006 National Water Master Plan (NWMP) review recommended further water infrastructure development and emphasized the need to intensify water resource management.

He cited the Gamononyane Pump Station as one testimony to the continuous implementation of the recommendations of the NWMP review.

Further, he noted that the whole NSC scheme was geared towards conveying water from the Letsibogo and Dikgatlhong dams to the high-water demand southern Botswana especially Greater Gaborone, including Molepolole and Kanye clusters. 

The current water demand in Greater Gaborone stood at 145ML/day and rose to 179 ML/day with the inclusion of the Kanye and Molepolole corridor while the total water supply was 130 ML/day, resulting in a deficit of 49 ML/day, the minister said.

The Mmamashia-Kanye NSC scheme he said, aimed at achieving a water secure Botswana by bridging the water supply deficit experienced in the villages of Kanye, Moshupa and Thamaga.  

As a result of the  scheme, Molepolole borehole water amounting to three million litres per day which was supplied to Thamaga would be directed to Molepolole thereby reducing the village’s deficit from 5.4 to 2.4 million litres per day, said Mr Mzwinila.

Meanwhile the minister has urged all to conserve every single drop since the country was faced with water scarcity and “preserve what we are able to salvage from our vulnerable resources”. 

He further encouraged the public to report vandalism of water infrastructure to relevant authorities and above all, to continue praying for the country to be blessed with the much needed rains.

Minister Mzwinila assured his audience that although the country was experiencing climate change challenges as well as uncertainties brought about by the natural phenomena coupled with financial constraints, government was committed to “keep the water flowing.”ENDS