01 Jun 2015

Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) secretary general, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe, says several crisis that befell the country was a result of the government’s oversight of under investing in the two most needed commodities.

Briefing the media, Thursday (May 28), he said if the government was serious and taking the needs of the people seriously, a lot could had been made to avert the electricity and water shortage.

As an example, he said South Africa invested R4.3 trillion in water projects over the next three years, which was more than the country’s annual GDP of R3.5trillion. This, he said, emphasised the importance attached to the two resources.

Mr Gaolathe, who is also the Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington South said, in Botswana, the annual budget was about P55 billion while annually the GDP was P140 billion, and the country only budgeted P3billion for both water and electricity annually, which he said, was much less than the GDP.

“How do you then as a country expect that with such under investment the country would be able to supply adequate supply of water and electricity to industry and the population?” he said.

These, he said, were the basic things that the country should get right, without spending more than 100 per cent of the GDP in water over the next three years as this differed from country to country. He said with such circumstances, there was no way that serious investors would want to invest in Botswana with so much uncertainty of gross under investment in water and electricity.

Other problems of water shortages, he said, were government’s failure to produce the necessary piping network and pipes that drew water from different multiple networks.

He said the problem that Botswana found itself in was not unforeseen, because it was known for many years that around 2015, the country would need 600 megawatts of electricity.

He said there had always been plans set in motion to prepare for the magnitude and the quantum of electricity and water that the country would need as early as the year 2000.

Mr Ndaba said there were plans by government and private sector as well, noting that the Mmamabula coal discovery was one of the country’s largest coal reserves in the world, producing more than 212 billion metric tonnes of coal.

In this regard, he said there were plans in track to develop from that coal electricity in excess of 3000 megawatts. He said government had even gone into negotiations with Eskom that it would absorb some of the electricity that would be produced in Botswana in principle.

Mr Gaolathe also said there were plans to fix or refurbish Morupule A, that is 118 megawatts and that the refurbishment would mean extending the life of the power plant to 15-20 years adding up to its lifespan of 40 years.

All these, he said were noble ideas that were never implemented. ENDS