12 Jan 2014

Batswana have been advised to undertake rain water harvesting to augment government efforts in providing water.

Speaking in a kgotla meetings in his constituency, Member of Parliament for Shoshong, Mr Phillip Makgalemele said though government had built dams to harvest water, individuals also had potential to harvest rain water. He said most people were not aware of the true value of rain water; saying about 19 cubic metres were lost due to lack of rain water harvesting.

He said he had since observed that there was a lot of rain water lost during rainy seasons. Mr Makgalemele said in the past, Batswana used to harvest rain water to use elsewhere including building and gardening, but nowadays rain water was left to escape yet the country was hit by shortage of water.

He also said rain water could be harvested for use in the poverty eradication initiatives such as backyard gardens.

He therefore encouraged Batswana to revisit rain water harvesting by using household roofs as ways of harvesting water. Kgosi Motsoga Gaogake of Mmutlane shared the MP sentiment and urged Batswana to buy JOJO containers for rain water conservation.

Kgosi Gaogake also said individuals could also dig water trenches to store free water but urged that they be secured so that children would not drown in them. ENDS