08 Oct 2013

The Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe, has appealed to the residents of Kgagodi in Tswapong north to make it their responsibility to ensure that standpipes in the village are in good condition.

Speaking during a kgotla meeting recently, Dr Kedikilwe said vandalising of standpipes was unacceptable because it reversed government’s efforts to improve people’s access to clean water. He said vandalising standpipes did not only affect Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), but also members of the community who did not have the means to connect standpipes in their own homes.

He also urged residents to use water wisely as the country was faced with acute shortage of water as a result of drying dams. The VP said Bokaa and Nnywane dams in the south were already dry, adding that if there was no inflow soon at the Gaborone Dam, it would also follow suit.

He said water levels in the northern dams were not as bad; for instance, Letsibogo Dam, which supplied the North-South carrier was left with 17 months, whilst Shashe Dam was left with about 20 months.

Regarding the country’s biggest dam, Dikgatlhong in Robelela, he said the 400 million cubic metre dam was complete. The dam level currently stood at 161 million cubic metres, he said, adding that the water pipeline from the dam was still under construction. Since the construction of the 75km pipeline from Dikgatlhong to Moralane was still ongoing, he said water could not be drawn from the dam to feed the affected areas in the south.

Construction of another 75km pipeline from Moralane to Palapye was still on going as well. For his part WUC official, Mr Matlotlo Obusitswe said the corporation intended to connect 21 standpipes of which 12 had already been connected. He said it was worrisome that some of the newly connected standpipes had already been vandalised, as such he called the community to work together with the corporation to fight this problem.

He said there were three boreholes serving Kgagodi and two were not working, resulting in shortage of water. He said however that the corporation was working around the clock to address the problem.

Regarding Lotsane Dam in Maunatlala, which was also expected to feed Kgagodi, he said the dam was complete and commissioning tests for the pipeline were still being conducted prior to the corporation’s hand over. He said this explained why Kgagodi recently started receiving potable water from the dam.

Mr Obusitswe said he did not know how long the tests would run because the dam level was still low. He said the dam had only 14 million cubic metres, which is only nine per cent full. He said initially Maunatlala was expected to be the first village to receive water from the Lotsane Dam but the number had been increased to include other villages.

He said the plan was for Maunatlala residents to drink from the dam for a period of nine months therefore since other villages have been included he did not know how long that will take. ENDS