All eyes to the skies
Mmegi Editor | Tuesday September 8, 2015 15:28
On Friday, the Meteorological Services Department will issue its own forecast based in part on SARCOF’s findings and thus unlikely to be materially different. A water crisis that has simmered in the Greater Gaborone for months, is spiralling out of control, with consumers in the worst affected areas last tasting running water from their taps weeks ago. Everyday, the search for water grows more desperate for parents and children, with some opportunistic ‘entrepreneurs’ building thriving businesses selling water whose quality is a matter for conjecture. Related to this, a health crisis is building up, with a diarrhoea outbreak in Ramotswa and Otse, street caterers recycling their meals and households living day-after-day with severely compromised standards of sanitation and hygiene.
Over the weekend, the 500,000 or so residents of the Greater Gaborone region witnessed one of life’s agonising ironies, when the heavens opened for the first time in months, while taps in houses remained dry. President Ian Khama and his minister responsible for water, Kitso Mokaila have both come out to reassure the nation that something is being done to restore stable, reliable supply for the country’s most economically important region.
Gaborone Dam failed last September and left the region wholly reliant on the North-South Carrier, a notoriously problematic pipeline where leaks and bursts are a dime a dozen.
Within the capital city, the fact that the carrier operates in fits and starts means water is frequently unavailable in certain areas due to network design and geographical issues where areas uphill receive supplies last. Even as government scurries about putting in place measures to remedy the situation, consumers have a critical role to play in ensuring, not only that the crisis blows over, but also that it does not recur in future. We should not have to wait for the building code to tell us not to install ensuites in every bedroom, or for gutters and storage to be made compulsory, or for experts to tell us how to enhance recycling of greywater. Botswana is a semi-arid country and we all know it. Our forefathers knew this and valued it priceless, as immortalised in the national mantra of ‘Pula’. However, improved access through the decades and subsidised tariffs lowered the value of water in our eyes.
We use and waste it as though it is an infinite resource. And now Gaborone and Bokaa dams have given us a rude awakening.
Whatever your denomination or beliefs, let us all look to the skies and make our entreaties for this, the most precious of resources.
Today’s thought
“The rain is not brought by government, but government if it rains, will harvest and take water to the people.”
- President Ian Khama