20 May 2021

 Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Kefentse Mzwinila and Gaborone North MP, Mr Mpho Balopi toured Glen Valley Waste Water Treatment Plant May 19.

Mr Mzwinila said it was the ministry’s responsibility to provide clean water to the nation and take it back after being used to clean and avail it for any suitable purpose such as watering plants.

He said the plant had been operational for many years and they realised the need to refurbish it. 

The ministry, he said,  came up with a two-year plan in 2019 to increase capacity for daily treatment of water, improve facilities and to treat waste water to a state that could be consumed.

Minister Mzwinila explained that before the upgrade of the plant, 50 million litres of waste water were treated per day, which was below greater Gaborone’s demand. 

He said the plant now had the capacity to treat 90 million liters of waste water in a day.

Mr Mzwinila highlighted that during the past years, there were lot of complaints from residents due to bad smell from the treatment plant, which needed improved facilities to be controlled.

The minister said the situation had now improved and there were few complaints, adding that experts had also been brought in to assist in reducing the bad smell.

He indicated that the first two phases would be completed in June and the plant would then be commissioned.

Mr Mzwinila said the third phase,  which was treatment of waste water to be in a consumption state, needed more consultation followed by  identifying the relevant people to lead the process.

He said neighbouring countries such as South Africa  and Namibia had already started treating waste water for consumption.

Furthermore, the minister said due to shortage of water, his ministry was considering different strategies to bring in water from outside the country such as from Atlantic Ocean through Namibia, Lesotho through S.A or from Zambezi.

For his part, Mr Balopi, also Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, applauded Minister Mzwinila’s ministry for delivering the project on time and within budget.

He indicated that residents in his constituency were  concerned about the bad smell from sewerage, adding that they would be grateful for the  treatment plant. 

“Residents of Gaborone North would now live in a better environment with reduced bad smell,” he added. 

In addition, Mr Balopi said the project was going to create employment. ends