17 Mar 2025

Assistant Minister of Water and Human Settlement Mr Motsamai Motsamai says Chobe Enclave has experienced intermittent power supply since beginning of rainy season, resulting in water supply interruptions.

Responding to a question in Parliament from Member of Parliament for Chobe, Mr Simasiku Mapulanga, he said the power supply was from the Zambia grid and supplied most of the water supply equipment in the Chobe Enclave. 

He said power cuts in the area had significant impact on the scheduled pumping regime, resulting in the pumps station and communication equipment failing to perform in the process.

Mr Motsamai said water shortage in the area was recently amplified by the torrential rains and lightings experienced, resulting in damage of crucial communication radio link used as the automation link to Kasane treatment plant control centre.

He said a new radio link was sourced and would be installed by end of March 2025, which would facilitate remote operations and visibility of the entire water supply scheme in the Chobe Enclave and Kasane treatment Plant Control centre. 

Furthermore, he said most villages in Kasane had small capacity tanks that got drained within a short duration of time during outages or emergency repairs. He said larger tanks were proposed for National Development Plan 12 budget for placement in strategic areas.

Also, he said the ministry intended to construct new big tanks of storage capacities ranging from 300 to 400 cubic meters at Kavimba and Mabele. These projects, Minister Motsamai said  would be submitted for consideration under the NDP12. He said the construction of the new Kachikau village tank was part of the scope of the ongoing Kachikau Minimal Land Serving Project. 

Mr Mapulanga had asked the minister to explain water shortage in Chobe Enclave even after commissioning of new treatment plant, and further asked when the ministry intended to fix the new tanks to supply enough water in the right volumes for the villages. ENDS