Water laws need urgent review � Paya
Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Thursday February 27, 2014 15:37
Speaking during a South East District Council session yesterday, Paya said that Section 6 of the Water Act allows property owners to construct works including dams and sinking a borehole without a water right. This is as long as the water is to be used for domestic purpose, including watering of livestock.
A water right is required only if the water is to be used for commercial purposes like irrigation or water supply. “I want to hasten to point out that the ministry is currently reviewing all water related legislation and this section falls among those which shall be amended,” he assured the council. Paya said that the current legislation makes water planning difficult as the law empowers people to do what they want, while the ministry on the other side has to plan and manage it.
Further, there is no action that the ministry can take against owners of private dams along the Gaborone Dam catchment area to give priority to the national dam. To that effect, Paya says that they want water legislation standards to come to that of minerals legislation, which does not allow anyone to keep or exploit minerals for themselves and entrust all minerals to the state. Currently, landowners pay only P60 when applying for water rights at the Department of Water Affairs.
The University of Botswana and the Department of Water Affairs have therefore engaged in a project to check the real capacity of private dams, Paya said. Previous studies have indicated that private dams along the Gaborone Dam catchment area have actually reduced in capacity as they collect a lot of silt. This process helps trap silt, a process that has reduced sedimentation in Gaborone Dam. Moshupa is reported to be 50 percent full with silt. Sedimentation process at Gaborone Dam is therefore reported to be at 0.21 percent per year, which is far less than that of Shashe Dam, which does not have small dams along its catchment area. Sedimentation at Shashe Dam is a bit higher at 1.22 percent per year.
The permanent secretary says that the ministry does not have a budget for de-silting dams. Shashe Dam would cost P500 million to de-silt, as it would demand sophisticated technology given that the dam always has water. “We have therefore allowed Batswana, private individuals to get river sand from the dam as a way of de-silting,” he said. Paya further urged the Department of Meteorological Services to review average rainfall expectations in greater Gaborone as records has shown that the area does not receive average rains of 500mm per annum that are usually predicted. Also, records have shown that the catchment area receives good rains in intervals of five years, while the years in between are usually drier.