29 Jul 2024

Government’s ambitious journey towards sustainable water supply continues countrywide with major water infrastructural projects. One such is the Lobatse Water Supply Master Plan (LWSMP).

The plan was conceptualised to address water deficits in the Gaborone-Lobatse corridor, being the Ramotswa Cluster (Ramotswa, Mmankgodi, Manyana and Mogonye), Otse Police College, Mogobane, Otse, Lobatse, Good Hope Sub-district, Molapowabojang, Kgomokasitwa and Mmathethe.

Lobatse Water Supply Master Plan project manager, Mr Nhlanhla Mbuli explained that the plan was conceptualised before the Water Sector Reforms that recommended major restructuring of the water sector, which included amongst others, the separation of water resources management from water service delivery.

Mr Mbuli, who is also lead engineer at the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), said WUC took over all water and wastewater service delivery in the country.

“WUC made master plans on a regular basis, thus the Lobatse master plan included other villages along the corridor. It was started in 2020 with the construction part. It was initially planned as far back as 2007 but did not take off the ground due to other reasons,” he said. 

He said the project was conceived in 2009 to alleviate acute water shortages in Lobatse management centre, with beneficiaries being areas along Gaborone-Lobatse corridor and villages in the Good Hope Sub-district area. Mr Mbuli said when the LWSMP took off in 2020, it was done in two phases. 

The scope of phase one entailed construction of a pump station at Forest Hill reservoir site near Kgale Hill, a 53km (900millimetres) pipeline from Forest Hill to Lobatse, and construction of a 16 million litres concrete reservoir at Lobatse and installation of telemetry infrastructure.

“The Forest Hill pump station is designed to pump 63 million litres per day on a welded steel pipe with several offtakes along the way to supply some areas on the corridor. The pipeline connects to the northern reservoir just after Nnywane Dam,” he added.

Mr Mbuli said the 10 offtakes along the pipeline supplied areas such as new Kgale development area, Mokolodi, Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Sentlhane and Lion Park, Crocodile Pool, Ramotswa through the Rankepe reservoir, Mogobane, Otse Police College, Seuwane development area and Otse before connecting to the northern reservoir.

He said phase one of the LWSMP project was completed but not yet commissioned as they await completion of the North South Carrier 2.2 project that would facilitate operation of the plan.

Mr Mbuli explained that phase one of the plan was to be completed within 12 months but the daunting challenge was the advent of the COVID-19 scourge. He said they faced a number of challenges such as the high prices of steel and supply mainly due to accessibility and transportation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Mbuli said phase two of the LWSMP entailed the Lobatse township only. He said the over P360 million project would take water from the northern reservoir to a 10 million litres tank then up to the Crescent pump station to supply to a pipeline to Barolong area.

He added that part of phase two was the network reinforcements, which would look into old pipes in the Lobatse reticulation and replace where necessary.

In addition to improving water supply in the Gaborone-Lobatse corridor for domestic needs, the LWSMP infrastructural development would facilitate major projects in Lobatse such as the Lobatse Milk Afric and Leather Park.

On full operation, the transmission pipeline from Gaborone to Lobatse will convey 63 million litres of water per day as compared to the current 14 million litres that is supplied to Lobatse, Barolong and surrounding areas, which poses a serious supply challenge.

The existing water supply scheme comprises of a pump station at Gaborone Water Works through a 500 mm ductile iron pipeline from Gaborone to Boatle booster, pump station at Boatle and a 600mm glass reinforced pipeline from Boatle to Nnywane Water Works near Lobatse.

From Nnywane, water is pumped to Hillside Reservoir, which distributes water to other distribution reservoirs in Lobatse and also supplies Crescent pump station that boosts water to Barolong villages.

Mr Mbuli explained that the existing scheme had surpassed its design life span and could no longer cope with the water demand for the area. He said this had resulted in the need for implementation of LWSMP to be able to sustain water supply needs for the area for the design horizon of 20 years. ENDs