Old Faithful pulls a Lazarus
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday February 24, 2017 16:09
The discovery of the now 91-year-old Roman Catholic Church at Gaborone Dam in 2014 was the sole morsel of good news in a tragedy marked by the deathwatch residents of Gaborone carried out for Gaborone Dam.
In November of that year, with Gaborone Dam just above five percent, I wrote on the discovery of the church, its altar and structures clearly visible for the first time since the Dam was built in 1963. Roman Catholic leaders would later inform me that prior to the Dam’s construction, the area had been a lively training institute replete with a thriving orchard.
As joyful as that historic discovery was, it did little to cheer a city facing an uncertain future as Gaborone Dam neared its inevitable failure, the first since construction.
A month before the ruins’ discovery, I walked to the banks of the drying Dam, through a floodplain marked by boulders and debris thrown overboard in happier times by revellers who probably never thought the dam would dry to the extent that their secrets will be revealed.
I would later write on the experience, stressing the funereal silence of the surroundings and nicknaming the Dam “Old Faithful” in appreciation of the years it had fought off droughts but remained standing. The article “A Requiem as Gaborone Dam Gives up the Ghost” drew mixed reactions with some social media commentators saying it was “overly dramatic” while others believed it was “too pessimistic”.
Whatever opinion everyone had soon became irrelevant as, in December 2014, we all collectively bowed our heads as the Water Utilities Corporation officially declared Gaborone Dam failed.
Whatever scrambling had been taking place among water authorities and consumers alike before, only intensified. The capital, the country’s economic hub, was left hanging on a 360 kilometre “string” being the North-South Carrier, a trouble-ridden pipeline carrying supplies from Letsibogo Dam in the north.
Projects such as the Masama well-fields were ramped up, others such as the pipeline from Dikgatlhong Dam were brought forward from other National Development Plans, and the Greater Gaborone area experienced water supply problems previously unheard of.
Potable water became big business, with even the retail chains jumping in and setting up water distillers. Gaborone was transformed. On each road, each junction everywhere in fact, the sight of trucks, vans and the omnipresent Matshelonyana, were buzzing around transporting all manner of water containers as households fought for every drop.
Old Faithful, still lying in state on the city’s eastern fringes, was largely forgotten and those who did remember her, likely did so with scorn. I paid her a visit in July 2015 and was appalled at her condition. Cattle were dicing with death in the mud, a few metres away from the iconic outlet tower, where a second measuring strip had been drawn as the original yellow one evidently did not anticipate levels descending below 10%.
Something miraculous had to happen. The despair in the city was overwhelming.
A study by former Minerals, Energy and Water Resources permanent secretary, Boikobo Paya gave some hope. According to his studies, Gaborone Dam generally took about five years between peaks, recovering slowly due in part to its unique catchment area. Paya’s prediction in the study, first revealed in a presentation before the Botswana Society, was that Gaborone Dam would fill up in February 2017.
Publishing the article by that point could have been viewed as “adding insult to injury” by households battling for water and like many looking at the dam’s corpse, I was naturally sceptical. I only worked on it nearly a year later, after confirming with other researchers. The article “After Hell Nino, glad tidings beckon for farmers” eventually saw the light of day in July 2016 with the intro reading in part: “By April 2017, Gaborone Dam could be full, while fields could be bristling with healthy crops and silos preparing for a bumper yield”.
Indeed, as the drought-causing El Nino weather phenomenon gave way to the wet La Nina in 2016, Gaborone Dam re-awoke, gaining marginal levels with the late rains last year before taking quantum leaps beginning in January.
Between Sunday and Thursday, Gaborone Dam jumped from 35.8%, to 52%, to 71.2%, to 89.4% and still rapidly filling up.
It is Thursday morning and the rains that have been pounding the city since Sunday show no signs of abating. Together with a colleague, we retrace the same steps taken in the body viewing of October 2014 but today, we are unable to proceed further than 100 metres from the dam’s entrance, opposite Old Naledi.
Periodically, as the thick clouds and fog clear, an unbelievable sight shows itself. The previously mortally wounded Old Faithful has pulled a Lazarus and awakened from the dead. The Biblical metaphors are difficult to ignore. Besides the Jesus/Lazarus miracle comparison, it is clear that only a deluge of Biblical proportions could have reawakened Old Faithful. In fact, I stated the very same in the “Requiem to Gaborone Dam” article from October 2014!
Today, the area around the dam is full of life, even with the rains coming down heavily. Officials from the Gaborone City Council arrive in two vehicles to view the resurrected dam for themselves, while members of the Yacht Club conduct assessments of the threat posed by the waters.
Gaborone Dam is standing at more than 91%, its highest level since April 2011. The last time the waters were higher than this was when the dam was full in December 2001. The waters, clearly visible all the way back to the railway line, have come up the embankments, covered the floodplain and are within stone’s throw of the main gate. As we gaze in wonder at the resurgent Old Faithful, I notice that no one is carrying an umbrella, even as the rain comes down.
It appears only appropriate that one should get soaked by the rain while witnessing a scene last seen in 2001, a sort of rebirth and taking in fully of the experience.
Having seen her at her worst, seeing her at her best is breathtaking and carthatic.
Welcome back Old Faithful. May you live long and prosper.
Rising Gaborone Dam waters close Yacht Club
The Yacht Club yesterday was forced to close doors to avoid the threat of harm, as water from the swollen Gaborone Dam continued rising.
After weeks of small increases, levels at the Dam ballooned from 35.8 percent on Sunday to 91.1 percent yesterday morning, due to massive inflows from rains that have fallen continually in the South East district.
Officials said police officers visited the Club on Wednesday and advised members to consider closing, due to rising water levels and blockages of key access and exit routes.
Club officials are understood to have assessed the situation on Thursday and taken a decision to close for safety reasons.
A security guard at the Club was reportedly removed earlier for the same reasons.