Africa-Press – Botswana. Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) has embarked on a community engagement exercise in an effort to address concerns regarding water supply in some areas.
As part of the exercise, the corporation engaged Otse and Mogobane communities on April 18 to update residents on the state of mega water projects, which will mitigate the current supply challenges.
Responding to concerns raised by villagers, WUC Ramotswa cluster manager, Mr Mmothi Segale said the ongoing Mmamashia Water Treatment Plant project initiative was aimed at building and increasing the capacity of the current plant to handle maximum inflows, which would be provided by the North South Carrier pipelines.
Mr Segale explained that the plant would treat a maximum of 110 mega litres of water per day, which would come in handy for the Ramotswa cluster, part of the Greater Gaborone area.
Another mega project, he said was the Lobatse Water Masterplan aimed at improving the volumes of water received at the Otse Pumpstation and was expected to be commissioned at the end of June.
He told residents that the water supply network was old and prone to leakages, adding that water pumps to Moeding had reached design capacity while demand had surpassed it, hence the area supplied was affected.
“As part of the mitigation efforts we have submitted request for funding in the next financial year for network rehabilitation and upgrade.
We are also assessing to establish new prepaid standpipes by the end of May in areas that are not reticulated awaiting land servicing,” he said.
Responding to concerns about the billing system, WUC Greater Gaborone general manager, Mr Kabo Maforaga said the corporation was working on pilot project for the prepaid metres.
“We are currently undertaking a smart metre project in Village ward in Gaborone and awaiting findings, which would be communicated in due course,” Mr Maforaga said.
WUC lead engineer, Mr Abednico Showa explained the water supply situation and admitted to challenges in the Ramotswa cluster that included Boatle, Taung and Mogobane villages.
Mr Showa said the deteriorated pipeline was reversing gains, but promised the communities that their concerns would be acted upon swiftly.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
