28 Jan 2020

 Members of the 12th Parliament on Monday toured Mmadinare’s Letsibogo Dam as part of their appreciation of the economic status of the Selebi Phikwe region.

The dam was constructed in 1998 and was the sole supplier to the North South Carrier prior to the construction of Dikgathong Dam in 2012. The MPs, who are attending a budget analysis orientation seminar in Selebi Phikwe, are also scheduled to tour BCL mine and SPEDU projects. Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Phandu Skelemani said touring the projects would give Parliament a picture of the economic hardships faced by Selebi Phikwe and villages in its periphery such as Mmadinare.

He said the nation should be aware that the national budget was not enough to meet national demand.

Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) customer service director Mr Goitseone Tshiamiso informed MPs that the dam was borne out of the need to convey water from northern to southern Botswana and formed part of the North-South Carrier supplying greater Gaborone and other villages such as Mahalapye, Palapye and Serowe.

The 100 million cubic metres dam is constructed on Motloutse River, one of the Limpopo River tributaries. He said the country’s water sources were boreholes and dams namely Dikgatlhong, Letsibogo, Shashe, Ntimbale, Thune, Lotsane, Gaborone, Bokaa, Nnywane and South Africa’s Molatedi.

He said due to the country’s flat terrain and other geographical aspects, there were few possible sites for storing water with the most promising storage sites found in the north eastern part of the country as espoused in the 1991 National Water Master plan.

Mr Tshiamiso said the corporation had a comprehensive water quality monitoring programme undertaken within the framework of mandatory requirements of the Botswana Standards for Drinking Quality Water Specifications, which required that potable water meet the minimum standards of class one.

He said the country remained one of the few countries where one could get drinking water directly from the tap.

Mr Tshiamiso also informed MPs that WUC recognised the importance of managing water demands because the concept made water available at lower costs thus making the economy more efficient.
Letsibogo Dam is currently 82 per cent full. ENDS