When the Kunyere bursts its banks

| Friday July 30, 2010 00:00

 

TOTENG: 'Bridge closed,' a warning sign screams to road users heading to the motor bridge across the heavily flooded Kunyere River in Toteng Village in the Ngamiland District.

Cement like dust and barrier tapes blocking the path along the Toteng-Sehithwa Road tell the story of a serious problem ahead. A stretch of about a kilometre or two of the tarred road which runs across the flooded Kunyere River has been sealed off  to motorists.

Heavy-duty trucks and other heavy-laden vehicles are not allowed to cross the old bridge being resorted to temporarily. On entering Toteng, there is a makeshift weighbridge to ensure that heavy vehicles do not go on the bridge.

Traffic to Sehithwa Village, about 30 km west of Toteng is diverted onto a dusty gravel road that crosses a rickety culvert that looks ready to be swept away by the angry waters of the Kunyere River. Without a doubt, there is sufficient information for motorists and other road users.

The force of the water gushing into the culvert along the old Toteng bridge makes a fierce noise. But as the water finally escapes into the wide river, it becomes misleadingly gentler, breaking into white foam.

But after escaping from this narrow bridge, the current assumes greater speed. The flooded river has also swallowed up boreholes, whole kraals and swept away the grazing plains. The water now surrounds a few dilapidated buildings that used to be on the edge of the riverbank and does not seem to be about to subside any time soon.

A Shakawe public transport bus stops just before reaching the bridge and all the passengers alight in order to better enable it to cross a lighter vessel. The passengers fall into single file to cross the bridge and await their bus on the other side, for their onward journey.

As we make an about turn to the sealed tarred road leading to the closed bridge, it is apparent that there are more issues in the village than meets the eye. At the sealed bridge, the Mmegi team meets five teenaged boys who seem to be enjoying themselves because schools are on a short vacation.

Kitso Obakeng (16) and his friends have walked a few kilometres to the river to enjoy the view and do a bit of fishing. He says the last time the water level was nearly where it is today was about six years ago.

'We started fishing for subsistence this week,' says Obakeng. 'I have just started but I already have two barbel fish in that container.' He is a Form One student at Shakawe Junior Secondary School.

One does not need to be a rocket scientist to appreciate that the so-called bridge across the Kunyere River, which is downstream from the Okavango Panhandle, is infact a culvert and cannot handle the large volumes of water flowing along the river.

To mitigate the problem, sandbags are lined on the side of the culvert, in an endeavour to block the water from crossing the road over to the other side. But given the water current, it has already crossed.

The decision to block motor vehicles from crossing the bridge is a good one and should save many lives going forward.

The Kunyere River here has extended into the neighbouring bushes, and there is water everywhere. But even if the water level subsided a little, it would remain highly risky to avail the bridge for use for some time.

Right in the middle of the road crossing this bridge, there is water gushing from underneath. It is not surprising that this is so because the level of water here speaks volumes of the potential damage it could do to infrastructure like roads.

On the side of the bridge, a water breaker has been constructed to avoid the water from sweeping the road away. But water is such a powerful element that it does not lend itself easily to diversion.

The villagers say for the past four years, the Kunyere has been flooded and that the water level has been rising each time. The authorities have apparently failed to notice this and seem unprepared. Across the river, a huge hippopotamus grazes languidly.

Even so, unemployed Surge Gaobotse (25) has left all the challenges posed by the flooded river to the authorities and is now indulging his passion - fishing for subsistence. Sitting on his cooler box, he throws his hook into the water and brings out a barbel shortly.

He has driven all the way from Maun to fish here because, he says, the Thamalakane River in native town does not have enough fish. 'There is a lot of water here and it brings a lot of fish along,' he says. 'I know I can't go home empty handed.'

Gaobotse might have been an auto mechanic had he completed the course, hence he is struggling to get a job in his preferred occupation.

Before she can answer the question I have asked her, Ntogelang Nashwa is struggling to throw a big tiger fish she has just caught into a bag and throwing her fishing rod back into the river. Her preferred catch is the twene, the native name for the barbel.

She does not sell her catch but prefers to preserve any excess by either drying or keeping them in the deep freezer. She is happy that the Kunyere is in flood because it means good tidings and something of cornucopia to the villagers.

Benestos Kapii (58) of Toteng is a farmer of the Mbanderu or Baherero tribe. He resides at Mmashara/Moumong cattlepost where the Kunyere changes into the Thamalakane. The last time he witnessed the river as flooded as it is now was in 1981.

He declares himself one of the happiest people in the village about the current water level 'because we no longer hassle for water from boreholes. Because the water is pure and clean, we and our livestock both drink from the river,' he says.

Before the water reached their village, he says they had to dig for water in the sand in the riverbed, which was an almost counterproductive effort because the water soon disappeared into sand.

Kapii is elated now because they are likely to have water in the river for an extended period of time.

'Thamalakane has been dry for a long time,' he says. 'You can imagine that for a long time we have not been able to sell out cattle to the BMC abattoir in Maun Ngamiland due to the outbreak of FMD in Ngamiland. It has been a problem watering our cattle because we have been breeding without selling.'

The MP for Ngamiland, Taolo Habano, is not shocked that Ngamiland is experiencing a crisis because of its flooded rivers. 'Wherever rivers our rivers are in flood, the whole constituency is impassable,' he says, adding that the bridge in Toteng is planned for upgrading.

Like everyone else, he is worried by the imprecise timeline of the upgrading of the bridges. 'I recently asked a question in Parliament relating to the upgrading of the bridges,' he says. 'My view is that a sturdy bridge should be constructed across the Kunyere.'

He concludes that the current crisis is a reflection of poor planning by the government. 'How can such a river, which has a history of carrying large volumes of water, have a culvert for a bridge?,' he queries. He says the problem is so serious that one of the companies involved in the upgrading of Maun Airport has been unable to get concrete from Bodibeng/Bothatogo because the bridge is impassable.

Habano says more water is coming into the Kunyere from the Okavango Panhandle, which in turn Lake Ngami. 'As we speak, the water has reached Tsau Village in Ngamiland, which has a similar problem of a low bridge,' he says.

The lawmaker fears that the people of Ngamiland will still be unable to sell their cattle to the BMC abattoir in Maun because 'the Animal Diseases Act of 1977 stipulates that in FMD prevalent areas, animals en route to the abattoir should be transported in trucks by road. We wonder how, in our case, the animals are going to be transported'. Ngamiland has an estimated 170,000 herds of cattle. Habano wonders how the newly re-opened Maun abattoir will survive without the Ngamiland herds. 'The small farmers in Ngamiland are going to feel the pinch,' he says.

'Since 2007, no cattle have been sold to the abattoir due to FMD. People here now want the Minister of Transport and Communications, Frank Ramsden, to visit so that he may see what they are going through.' According to records, the last time the Kunyere River was flooded to the current levels was in 1974. In 1962 and 1963, Lake Ngami was heavily flooded, almost bursting its banks.