09 Mar 2014

The director of department of crop production, Mr Galeitsiwe Ramokapane has said the department is looking to employ waste water re-use and water harvesting for use in irrigation.

He said this when addressing the Serowe Sub-council recently. Mr Ramokapane said the aim was to harness waste water for irrigation from various water treatment plants in the rural/urban areas such as Tonota, Lobatse and Serowe as well as to extract water from the sand rivers of Shashe and Motloutse.

He informed councillors that, this was one way of exploring various sources of water which remained scarce in Botswana. The director said proposed crops for irrigation included beetroot, cabbage, onion, carrot, cucumber, eggplant, green, lettuce, peas, pepper, tomato, rape, and squash adding the treatment of water would be in accordance with BOS 463:2011 which is adequate for public safety standards.

Mr Ramokapane said they had identified potential irrigable areas proximate to Serowe North and Serowe South sewage ponds, saying interested locals would be allocated plots around the area. While the councillors endorsed this initiative they also had reservations.

Councillor Setlalekgosi Molefhi said although it would take a long time to understand and accept water treatment, they would eventually get used to it.He expressed concern over the safety of the children, livestock and environment particularly where the water treatment would be done.

Councillor Bahiti Ratora indicated there had been many other initiatives from agriculture that took a lot of time to take off while others collapsed. He blamed this on lack of consultation between agriculture personnel and councillors.

He said this often strained their relationship with the electorates as they always informed them of the initiatives which then dissipated into thin air. Some of the councillors wanted to know whether the treated water was safe for consumption by people, and they were reminded that the water was specifically for irrigation and not for consumption.

He admitted that over the years they did not do enough to consult the council on other initiatives, and he assured them that from now on they would consult them and see this project through, hence the address. He said there were similar projects in Gaborone’s Glen Valley location where farmers used waste water to irrigate their fields and supplied big supermarkets and no health problems had been reported either by farm workers or consumers. Ends