Fourteen turn down WUC job offers

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday March 5, 2010 00:00

Wednesday that WUC has an establishment of 475 positions of which 368 had been offered to the staff members from the Department of Water Affairs and local authorities.

'Of these 348 have accepted the positions, 14 declined, one is deceased and five are outstanding. Two-hundred and fifty-five employees were not absorbed by WUC from Phase 2 and have been redeployed within their Sub Districts, while employees of DWA have been redeployed within the DWA's other stations at the end of January 2010,' the minister said. He did not say why the 14 declined the WUC job offers but only indicated that the unions supported the takeover.

He was requesting his P465million recurrent budget and P3.4billion development budget for the 2010/11 financial year, which has been increased from the previous year.

Kedikilwe reported progress on his ministry's major projects like the construction of Dikgatlhong, Thune and Lotsane dams in the Central District.  He said that despite delays caused by rain the completion date for Dikgatlhong dam is February 2012 while the contractor for Thune dam has commenced excavation, setting contractor's camp and other related works.  'Progress to date stands at eight percent,' Kedikilwe said.  Lotsane dam construction started in April last year and is 23 percent complete.

The minister said that the construction of North-South Water Carrier Two was behind schedule as it was hoped to commence last month but has not happened due to the NSC Corridor Compensation Process.

'My ministry is also undertaking water supply expansion and rehabilitation initiatives to address critical water shortages in some villages and reduce high water losses, hence reduce high operating costs,' he said. He revealed that the connection of Serowe village to the North South Carrier should be completed by August 31 this year.

There are challenges they are facing in the ratification of ZAMCOM Agreement on the utilisation of water resources of the Chobe-Zambezi River for irrigation and domestic use by Botswana.

The intention is to supply the Greater Gaborone from the Zambezi Basin by 2035. He said that the agreement could only be enforced once six out of eight countries have ratified it and five have already done so.

In another attempt to flow more water into the country, the Botswana government approached Lesotho last year to acquire water from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. 'The preliminary assessment from the established tripartite technical task team has shown that it will not be feasible to include Botswana in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase Two, which shall commence by 2010,' he said.

The minister further announced the implementation of cross border water supply agreement to supply water to Kgalagadi South and there is an ongoing study on the issue. Once completed, the area will get five million cubic meters of water annually from the Vaal River, South Africa. 'In the interim, the Republic of South Africa has proposed an option to supply water to the Middlepits demand centre from the available surplus in their network,' he said.

There are other measures that the ministry has put in place to address the water shortage in Molepolole, Thamaga, Letlhakeng and some villages in Kweneng West while educating the public about water preservation, and recycling used water.

'My ministry is also working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Crop Production Department, to explore effluent treatment options that will allow irrigation of restricted crops. A pilot study is ongoing at Glen Valley horticultural project in Gaborone. The study, intended to conclude by April (next month), is expected to recommend seminal measures to improve the quality of treated affluent for irrigation of all crops, including restricted vegetable crops,' he said.