Speaking at the just ended full council meeting, Nkaigwa said the drainage system is inadequate and cannot effectively serve its purpose. He said the Gaborone Storm Water Master Plan of 2002 indicates that the city lies in a flood plain and extensive work needs to be carried out to avoid flooding. He called for a holistic approach to improving the drainage problem. However, Nkaigwa acknowledged that despite budgetary constraints, some of the work has been carried out. “During this financial year, all budgeted storm water drains’ construction were done using the limited recurrent budget,” he said. He pointed out that drainage projects have been completed at the Village, Extension 21 and Phase 2 and other places in the city. Nkaigwa stated that drainage and cleaning works are ongoing through in-house crews. He said that it is difficult to deal with potholes because some of the city roads have reached the end of their life span and require substantial rehabilitation. He said a lot is being done to attend to potholes but the situation becomes worse during the rainy season. He said despite the fact that contractors and council workers are currently addressing the pothole problem, the efforts have minimal impact, as the budgetary provisions are very low and recent downpours have exacerbated the problem.
