It was obvious from its excellent editorial last Friday on the seriousness of our water situation that Mmegi had taken careful note of Professor Grynberg's hard-hitting article the previous week. It expressed its own conviction that, 'more and more Batswana are beginning to accept that we are more water-challenged than ever'. Perhaps so. But personally I doubt that we have come anywhere near to grasping the realities of our water situation not least because to date the government itself has flinched from telling us the truth. On the one hand, it may be unwilling to do so for obvious political reasons. On the other it may genuinely believe that it can crack the problem by piping water from Chobe and Lesotho.
Helpfully, however, Professor Roman Grynberg, who is not similarly constrained has now warned us of the hardships inevitably ahead and that the WUC would be fully justified if it increased its tariffs by 60 percent. There are however, a number of comments in his article that need to be further explored. Firstly, Professor Grynberg maintains that the management and Board of the WUC have shown a willingness to explain the situation and what needs to be done. Ideally, this is what should be happening but I, personally, am unaware that it is doing anything of the kind. Secondly he states that the government will spend P7 billion rehabilitating the reticulation systems in most of the major centres which are reported to be antiquated and dilapidated. These systems were put in place in, I believe, the 1970-90 period. Are we now to understand that Water Affairs, which had responsibility for them, failed either to maintain them or to prepare plans for their phased upgrading? In other words, everyone, from top to bottom, who was involved during those years, did almost everything wrong - that is the planners, the District Councils and the local government technicians. To be asked to take such a scenario on board is to receive a most monumental kick in the guts.
