10 Mar 2015

Projects such as Dikgatlhong Dam, which is the biggest dam in Botswana, reflect forward planning and innovation that is required for providing the nation with water.

Therefore, governments in Africa must become creative like Botswana, said Ghana president, Dr John Dramani Mahama when commissioning Dikgatlhong Dam on March 10. President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama attended the event.

President Mahama said Africa was the most rapidly urbanising continent and the effects of increasing urban population meant that governments had to provide more innovative solutions to get water to these growing urban communities.

“Countries are developing in terms of industry, business and commerce and often when a country has a rapidly growing economy, the demand for water also increases,” he said.

He commended Botswana for the visionary leadership, adding that the construction of Dikgatlhong Dam was similar to the story of the construction of the Akusumbu Electric Power Station in Ghana where communities had to be relocated to make way for the project.

President Mahama said he had been informed that communities who had previously settled at river basin where Dikgatlhong Dam had been constructed were also moved to make way for the project.

He said besides the provision of water, Dikgatlhong Dam would also provide tourism, business and create employment for the youthful population. The president said Ghana had the same similarities as Botswana in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and had to invest heavily on provision of water supply.

He said in the last decade, they had to invest close to US$2 billion on different kinds of water systems like boreholes, town water systems and large pump stations like the one at Dikgatlhong Dam.

“These are some of the strategies we use to provide clean drinking water to cover at least 70 per cent of our population and we still need to cover 30 per cent,” he said, adding that their intention was to have 100 per cent coverage by 2025. The Ghanaian president further said in the modern world things were changing and the weather had become unpredictable.

He said climate change had affected all parts of the world. “Even in Ghana we are feeling effects of climate change, as I speak, we have  a load management programme n Ghana because our biggest hydro-power dam has reached  critical level as the water level has gone low, this is because we have two years with disappointing rainfall,” he said.

Dr Mahama praised the leadership of Botswana stating that they had placed Botswana as one of  the most respected  countries in Africa with probably the highest per capita income. He said Botswana was respected for its transparency, good governance and other social indices of life.

“I believe you have a leadership you can be proud of,” he said.   For his part, the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources said  Botswana had used diamonds to drive the economy without necessarily being biased to people where such diamonds were mined. 

He said diamonds had benefitted the entire nation including those who did not  have a trace of diamond deposit. He said revenue from diamonds had financed the National Development Budget which had funded the construction of the Dikgatlhong Dam.

Minister Mokaila explained that  the Dikgatlhong Dam was built in the Northern part of Botswana whilst the intended beneficiaries were mainly in the Southern part of the country.

He said the site of Dikgatlhong Dam was identified in 1987 and back then there were settlements called Polometsi and old Matopi which had to be relocated because they would eventually be submerged by water once the dams were full.

The minister said sensitive consultations with those who were residents to relocate were made.  He acknowledged his predecessor and former vice president, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe, who led the sensitive and delicate negotiations in the interest oIn the meantime, the Dikgatlhong Dam which is the largest Dam in Botswana has a water holding capacity of 400 million cubic meters of water.

The dam’s wall is 4.6 km and the depth is 41 meters high. ENDS