05 Nov 2013

Government continues to explore the possibility of importing water from South Africa and Lesotho and is also developing plans to pipe water from the Zambezi basin to meet the national water demand.

Delivering the State-of-the-Nation Address in Parliament on November 4, the President, Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama, said Botswana had limited water resources which must be managed to ensure sustainable use. President Khama said government prioritised trans-boundary cooperation in the context of the SADC Protocol on shared water sources to meet national water demand.

From March 2014, the Middlepits cluster of villages will be supplied with water from South Africa. Negotiations for additional water from Lesotho Highlands were ongoing, with Lesotho, South Africa and Botswana having signed a tripartite agreement in March 2013 under the auspices of the Orange-Senqu River Commission. A study will be undertaken under this MoU to establish the feasibility of Botswana getting water from the Lesotho Highlands.

“We are also continuing to develop plans to pipe water from our share of the Zambezi basin off take,” he said President Khama said the recent takeover of the last villages by the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) was completed in April 2013, with most of the villages having also been migrated to the WUC billing system. He said efforts to maintain water supply security were challenged by recurring drought, adding that in order to address this challenge, “WUC has introduced water restrictions and rationing in order to reduce water demand”.

“Government has availed a budget of P470 million for drought mitigation projects, including the upgrading and refurbishment of boreholes and the expansion of treatment plant capacity,” he said. “So far, P338 million worth of projects are at various stages of implementation.”

The president also said the government continued to build water reserves infrastructure such as dams, with Dikgatlhong and Lotsane dams receiving significant inflow last year. Thune Dam was completed in July 2013. A P1.3 billion, 75-km water pipeline from Dikgatlhong Dam to Moralane will be completed in January 2014. The North South Carrier 2 pipeline to Palapye is also under construction. ENDS