Lobatse tangoes with Dineo and loses
Tumelo Mouwane | Friday February 24, 2017 16:10
On Sunday, its own “Dineo” arrived. Mmegi Correspondent, TUMELO MOUWANE reports on this week’s floods in the border town
Starting from Sunday, heavy rains lashed the border town and its surroundings, affecting public transport, Botswana Railways’ operations, healthcare facilities and homesteads.
People had to be evacuated from their homes and overflowing rivers spilled onto the roads. The Lobatse-Gaborone road was closed after it was totally covered by floodwater, during which a bridge collapsed near Nywane Dam.
The town was cut off, while its streets flowed with muddy floodwaters. Referrals to and from Athlone Hospital were affected, as were other activities in the town.
Inside Athlone, waters flowed into the Dental Clinic and its operating room, leading to its closure and the suspension of major dental operations. Lorwana Clinic was flooded on Tuesday and classrooms in the town were put on standby to help assist as consultation rooms if the situation worsened.
Lobatse District Health Management Team (DHMT) chairperson, Tilwane Mokgatle confirmed that the rains had affected operations at the Dental Clinic as well as the pharmacy. She said drivers had to take risks to at least help patients meet their referrals at Princess Marina hospital.
“The rain has affected us at Athlone. Experts have said it will not be safe to use the laboratory as water has affected electrical cables.
“They recommend new roofing for the lab which will take time to do. “At the pharmacy, water dripped into the main housing but we are still offering services despite the fact that the structure is shaky,” she said.
She added: “We experienced a challenge of referring patients to Gaborone hospitals since the bridge near Nywane Dam collapsed. We now have to use alternative routes and sometimes our drivers take risks to make it so that patients are transported to their referrals”.
For public transport operators, getting passengers from Lobatse to Gaborone has become a challenge to the extent that some parked their vehicles following the closure of the Lobatse-Gaborone road.
One of the bus drivers, John Molefhe said the road to Gaborone was bumpy and was dotted with a number of potholes. The alternative road of Lobatse-Molapowabojang-Ranaka-Gaborone was congested, he said.
“We have experienced a number of challenges since the rains started. We are using Lobatse-Mogobane-Gaborone route, which is quite longer. There are several challenges we come across such as potholes and the road is in a bad state.
“You can pass a place and when you come back on your return journey, you find a pothole there.
He said passengers were cooperating and willing to pay the extra charges public transport operators were charging them to use the longer route.
Those passengers hoping to “escape” Lobatse using the railway have also been sorely disappointed. The rains ripped up the railway track earlier in the week, derailing a goods train near Peleng Dam.
Senior officials at Lobatse Railways Station, who opted to remain anonymous, said efforts to restore the railway line near the Dam were ongoing despite the continuing heavy rains.
“Efforts to repair the railway are underway and investigations are on as to how the incident happened. It may take up to Monday to get the railway back in place, since water is still flowing from Peleng Dam. Hopefully it will be back in place by next week,” one of the officials said.
The officer further said Botswana Railways had been caught off guard by the incident since floods are not common between Lobatse and Mafikeng.
“We allowed the Mafikeng-Lobatse train to deliver cargo because we did not expect any floods in the area. Unfortunately, the waters eroded the soil beneath the railway line causing this accident, “ he said.
With more rains forecast for the weekend, Bandleng residents are bracing for the worst.