05 Nov 2025

Minister of Water and Human Settlement, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi has raised concern over of the country’s water deficit, which currently stands at 17.3 per cent. If not addressed, he said the situation was anticipated to increase by 51 per cent by 2035.

Mr Ramogapi revealed this to Parliament on Tuesday during presentation of his ministry’s proposed projects and programmes under NDP 12.

He said water scarcity was exacerbated by climate change hence resulting in low recharge of dams and underground water sources.

Mr Ramogapi said other major challenge for the water sector was limited water supply distribution network owing to the dilapidated infrastructure and geographical expansion of demand centers.

He said in some cases, the challenge had led to high levels of water bowsing that came with increased operational costs.

Mr Ramogapi said insufficient sanitation infrastructure and services had also led to water pollution adding that about five per cent of the country population still practiced open defecation due to insufficient sanitation facilities especially in rural areas and along the major highway.

“The problem of open defecation causes pollution of the environment, posing a threat to ambient water quality,” he said.

In addition, he stated that drinking water quality was similarly threatened by insufficient sanitation infrastructure, high salinity of groundwater as well as climate change effects.

This, he said would ultimately have negative effects on various sectors of the economy particularly agriculture, wildlife and tourism.

With regard to housing, Mr Ramogapi indicated that access to adequate housing was constrained by issues of affordability and the situation was worsened by the high prevalence of poverty and unemployment.

Other challenges, he said included poor quality of housing structures and lack of essential services such as sanitation.

To address both challenges, Mr Ramogapi proposed Parliament to approve over P47.2 billion of which an estimate P4.5 billion would be channeled towards completion of ongoing projects while P42.6 billion would be for new projects for both water and housing projects.

Furthermore, he said the Housing Act would be formulated to provide a legal and institutional framework for the development, regulation and delivery of housing in Botswana.

“It will outline the roles and responsibilities of government entities, set housing standards and ensure that the national policy on housing is implemented in a structured manner,” he said.

He noted that the housing strategy would also be developed with the aim to operationalise the housing policy and translate it into a focused action oriented framework with priority goals, target outcomes, timelines and mechanisms for the coordination of stakeholders.

Similarly, he highlighted that the existing water distribution network had surpassed its design capacity and life span, hence the need for rehabilitation and expansion of water distribution networks especially in major villages.

He said the network rehabilitation and expansion programme was aimed at improving efficiency of the system, increase network coverage and reduce water losses.

It is against this background that Mr Ramogapi indicated that the sum of P13.4 billion would be allocated for the implementation of network rehabilitation and expansion projects during NDP 12.

He said the budget was inclusive of the P1.6 billion required for the completion of the ongoing Maun water and sanitation as well as Molepolole water supply network projects.

The proposed new projects under this program, he said included network rehabilitation and upgrade for Molepolole and Thamaga, Kanye and Moshupa, Greater Gaborone, Greater Francistown, Mochudi, Kweneng, Gumare, Masunga, Machaneng, Serowe and Sefhare clusters. ENDS