02 Dec 2021

Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) needs to stay afloat and provide quality water services to the nation, but it can only do that if people paid their water bills. Greater Gaborone WUC general manager, Mr Kabo Maforaga said this during a stakeholder engagement forum Tuesday in Ramotswa. 

The purpose of the forum was to update stakeholders on the current water situation in the country, performance of water sources and expected impact on demand. 

The briefing also covered updates on water distribution following the state of emergency, dam levels, alternative payment platforms, ongoing projects including the corporation’s debt management campaign and water conservation. 

Mr Maforaga raised a concern that the corporation was owed in excess of P1.2 billion in unpaid water bills and urged stakeholders to engage in meaningful discussions that would enable his company and its customers to enjoy better service delivery. 

For her part, WUC Stakeholder Management and Communications specialist Ms Beauty Mokoba said there were a number of water infrastructure development projects lined up as mitigation factors to the country’s water challenges. 

Ms Mokoba said as part of drought preparedness strategy on a long term basis, the Masama East and Masama West well fields had been commissioned and nine dams fully commissioned. She noted the North-South pipelines reliability was also good. 

Ms Mokoba highlighted other major long-term projects such as the Lesotho Highlands and the Chobe Zambezi water transfer projects, ongoing infrastructure to facilitate utilisation of saline groundwater such as the reverse osmosis project in Tsabong and Bokspits. She noted that some of the challenges faced in water supply were among others, old pipe network, drought recurrence, climate change and low recharge rate of underground water. 

Ms Mokoba said as part of their efforts towards the transformation agenda, the corporation had adopted water efficient systems such as onsite storage, onsite recycling and water restrictions and rationing. 

On the latest dam level and water supply situation, Ms Mokoba said Dikgatlhong dam, the country’s primary water source was at 24 months of supply without inflow, Molatedi dam in South Africa supplying WUC was at 47, Gaborone Dam at 17, Letsibogo 20, Thune 39, Shashe 21, Ntimbale 15, Lotsane 25, Bokaa 10 and Nnywane 11. 

WUC lead engineer, Mr Abednico Showa explained that the water supply situation and projects in the Ramotswa cluster included villages such as Taung, Boatle and Mogobane. 

He also gave the water supply overview and challenges in the area. South East District Council chairperson Mr Oshima Peloewetse appealed to key stakeholders to face challenges against all odds. He urged them to have the courage to introspect and the boldness to address issues blatantly. Mr Peloewetse decried contamination of underground water as a challenge in the area. Ends