FCC acts in anticipation of floods

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Monday November 8, 2010 00:00

 

This is inspite of a storm water drainage project being shelved because of the global economic recession for almost two years.  Mayor Shadrack Nyeku told The Monitor that after the rains here two weeks ago, his office was inundated with calls from people who said their homes were flooded.

The mitigation plans include digging trenches, especially in known flood prone areas of Botswana's second city.

'The area by Metsef is a problematic one,' the Mayor said. 'We have dug trenches there to carry the water away. We have done so for all other areas that we know have this problem when it rains heavily.'

The storm water drainage system project goes back nine years when it was adopted by means of a Council resolution in 2001.  

Meanwhile, the Mayor said he could not say when the multi-million pula storm water drainage system project would resume, adding that a few other projects were halted because of the recession. A significant one among them was for internal roads.  'Roads in Francistown are old and worn out,' said Nyeku. 'They should have been upgraded to alleviate traffic congestion long ago.'

Some of the residential neighbourhoods highly prone to floods here include Kgaphamadi, Maipaafela, Block One and Area W. In early 2009, twenty families were left homeless after heavy rains.