22 Jul 2013

Reliability of North South Carrier (NSC I) water transfer scheme continues to be doubtful, says Water Utilities Corporation official, Mr Gaselemoge Senai.

Addressing members of parliament on the water supply situation during a tour of Morupule B in Palapye over the weekend (July 20), Mr Senai said reliability of NSC to augment water supply to greater Gaborone area was questionable.

Greater Gaborone area included Gaborone, Lobatse, Ramotswa, Mogoditshane, Tlokweng and Mochudi. He said NSC was plagued by inefficient and unreliable pumps primarily due to aging, adding that the pumps were refurbished in 2011/12 but were still not performing reliably.

He said about 26km of the pipeline from Palapye proved to have problems resulting in water supply failure. Another factor that contributed to low water supply, he said, was the current drought which resulted in a serious water supply deficit in several management centres.

He said the corporation had also realised a drop in dam levels, adding Gaborone Dam which supplied the greater Gaborone area was 21.4 per cent full and could supply water for a period not exceeding nine months.

Mr Senai further said Nywane dam which contributed 10 per cent of water supplied to Lobatse had dried up as such Lobatse now depended 100 per cent on Gaborone dam. He said Bokaa Dam on the other hand was left with only four months to dry up.

Letsibogo Dam that contributed 36 per cent to greater Gaborone area, he said was healthy and left with 19 months. He explained that Molatedi supplied other consumers in South Africa and supplied Botswana with 7.3 million cubic metres per year.

He said the dam was left with 36 months to dry up, adding that when the dam level dropped, supply got affected. However he said WUC had come up with initiatives to mitigate water supply failure which included NSC pumps maintenance to improve pumping reliability to maintain 60 million litres per day to greater Gaborone area.

He said the corporation was also engaged in the NSC pipeline repair to address the problem of bursting of pipeline. Regarding Molatedi scheme, he said negotiations with the South African Department of Water Affairs were ongoing to waiver the rationing of water supply to half as per agreement.

Other projects include Masama wellfield of which the boreholes will be equipped and inject an additional 36 million litres per day into NSCI to supplement water supply to the greater Gaborone. The project is at tender award stage. Ramotswa well field refurbishment, he said will be done to supplement supply to the Ramotswa cluster by eight million litres per day.

The project is at design stage and estimated to be complete in November. Whilst the areas of Tsabong and Borolong have critical water shortage problems, he said the area around Francistown has no deficit. ENDS