28 Feb 2023

The amount of water supplied from Masama water scheme is affected by unavailability of boreholes at Masama Wellfield due to vandalism, Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Dr Kefentse Mzwinila has said.

Dr Mzwinila said this when he was responding to a parliamentary question on Monday, where he indicated that the design capacity of the scheme was 64 million litres per day, but currently operating at 20 million litres per day.

He said the scheme had 56 boreholes, three pump stations, four storage tanks, network of pipelines of varying sizes, telemetry work, power distribution network of 11 and 33 kilovolts as well as the recently commissioned 100 kilometres pipeline.

The minister also told Parliament that security provisions were in place at the wellfield comprising palisade fence for all pump stations, boreholes and storage tanks as well as electric fence around all boreholes.

Security provisions also include manned security at the main pump stations and reservoirs as well as  access roads for monitoring of the pipeline for theft and leakages, among others.

Notwithstanding security provisions, he said Water Utilities Corporation had been experiencing an upsurge in cases of vandalism at some critical boreholes.

“Vandalism is carried out by some criminal elements in the society that steal copper wire,” he said, adding that 26 out of 56 boreholes in the entire scheme had been affected.

He further said efforts were ongoing to reinforce security on the scheme currently being provided by a private security company that was carrying out night patrols throughout the borehole networks at both Masama east and west.

“The patrols are done with vehicles and on horse backs.

Additional, security enhancements which include the use of digital technology is at a tender evaluation stage,” he said.

The minister indicated that borehole restoration had been ongoing since November last year through internal interventions and engagement with Botswana Power Cooperation (BPC).

Also, he said five out of 10 restored boreholes had aluminium cables installed instead of copper, which he said were less attractive to criminals.

“BPC installed aerial bundle cables instead of copper on the other five boreholes. A tender is at an awarding stage to restore both cables and control panels on 16 remaining boreholes,” he added.

Member of Parliament for Maun West, Mr Dumelang Saleshando had asked the minister to confirm if indeed the recently constructed Masama-Mmamashia 100 kilomentre pipeline had defects and operated below the planned capacity and if so, explain the nature of the defects.

Mr Saleshando also wanted to know if the defects would be remedied within the defects liability period. ENDS