P13m to refurbish ‘old’ Tsau water plant
Mompati Tlhankane | Tuesday February 7, 2023 06:00
Responding to a question during a Ntlo Ya Dikgosi sitting recently, Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Kefentse Mzwinila said taking cognisance of the limited refurbishment made last year, the plant still needs an upgrade.
Mzwinila revealed that the Tsau Water Treatment Plant has been proposed for rehabilitation and upgrade on a phased approach with a provisional budget of P13 million proposed for consideration by the Board in the financial year 2023–24.
He was responding to a question from Kgosi Tjazako Munduu of Ngami Region who had asked if he was aware that Tsau Plant is outdated and does not provide enough water and if so, what plans are in place to address the situation and if he will consider including it under the Semolo and Nokaneng development plan. “Tsau Water Treatment Plant was commissioned in 2002 and has surpassed its 10 years’ design horizon. In 2013, it underwent major refurbishment at a cost of P5 million.
This improved its production capacity from 2,000 litres to 18,000 litres per hour and its efficiency from 10% to 86%. Furthermore, in September 2022, Tsau Water Treatment Plant underwent further refurbishment,” Mzwinila told Ntlo Ya Dikgosi. He said the Water Treatment Plant underwent further refurbishment albeit limited works which included changing membranes to improve its efficiency from 45% to 83%. Mzwinila said the Tsau Water Treatment Plant was refurbished in 2013 with a design capacity of 18,000 litres per hour.
“This plant is a Reverse Osmosis (system) designed to treat water from a borehole with high Iron Content yielding 33,000 litres per hour and connected to the Botswana Power Corporation power grid. However, the plant is currently operated for 16 hours per day (three shifts) with a total production of 240,000 litres per day against a demand of 243,000 litres per day.
The treatment plant is operating with one stream as the other stream needs major refurbishment (new pump sets, membranes, and control panels). The plant further needs a telemetry system considered under the refurbishment scope for ease of operation and monitoring,” he highlighted. Mzwinila also disclosed that there are no standby generators at both plants or the boreholes.
This he said poses operational constraints as in the event of a power outage there is a loss of water production and subsequent water disruption due to the limited capacity of the storage facility to last less than 24 hours against the ideal 48 hours storage capacity. He said the standby generator will be incorporated into the proposed rehabilitation and upgrade for 2023–24.
“The raw water and product tanks are inadequate for 48 hours storage capacity as per Water Utilities Corporation standard. Currently, due to the dilapidated state of the glass-reinforced plastics tank, six Jojo tanks (60m3) are used for raw water and a 200m3 ground storage tank on a six-metre stand for the product tank.
Ideally for water security, is a 48-hour buffer, there is, therefore, a need to construct a 200m3 raw water tank on dwarf walls and 500m3 on a 15m stand product tank, as indicated above are considered under the proposed plant rehabilitation and upgrade project,” he pointed out. Mzwinila said upon completion of the proposed plant rehabilitation and upgrade of the plant, the treatment plant is anticipated to supply Semboyo and Makakung villages currently challenged due to high levels of arsenic content in the single borehole supplying the villages. He said the Tsau Water Treatment Plant has not been included in the Nokaneng and Semolo project scope due to budget constraints.