01 Oct 2013

Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) will intensify rationing of water as water shortage crisis continues to deteriorate. Rationing began on September 29 in Gaborone and its peripheries and is expected to increase from twice to three times a week.

WUC infrastructure director, Mr Gaselemogwe Senai said during a media tour of Bokaa and Ramotswa Dams recently that the Bokaa Dam, that augments supply of water in Gaborone and surrounding areas, was left with only a few days to dry up. Bokaa Dam that accounts for 25 per cent supply of water per day, now stands at only eight per cent, and will fail in a week’s time. Mr Senai added that the Gaborone Dam water level stood at 17 per cent and enough to last for only seven months.

Again, he said the corporation has pleaded with authorities of the Molatedi Dam in South Africa to continue supplying water despite the agreement that they can only supply Botswana with 20 million cubic litres of water when the dam was over 26 per cent. “Their dam is currently at 23 per cent and this means that end of October we will be drawing 10 million cubic litres of water from Molatedi dam,” he said.

Mr Senai said the average demand of water for Gaborone and greater Gaborone was 110 millon cubic litres a day against the 70 million cubic litres that the corporation can supply. He noted that water shortage was compounded by the fact that the North South Carrier has not been functioning since June.

“Combination of unreliable supply from NSC and Bokaa Dam will severely affect the supply of water in the Kgatleng area as it entirely depends on the two sources of water,” he said. However, he said they were hopeful that supply of water from NSC will be back to normal mid-October. In the meantime, he said Kgatleng will be provided by water from Malotwane and Rasesa boreholes to augment supply in the area.

“These boreholes were used before the commissioning of the Bokaa Dam in 1993, and we will reinstate them to augment the supply,” he said. Thus, the public has been encouraged to adhere to the revised water restriction measures. ENDS