The continuing rainfall has increased the water levels in our dams.
Though some dams have not been officially handed over to the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), the situation looks promising.
Currently, all dams have increased in water levels and some of them are projected to last up to 23 months without any further water inflow.
Most dams in Botswana are either full or in a good position to supply the nation for a period of more than 20 months. Shashe Dam has the highest number of months of water supply without an in further inflow. On Friday when The Sunday Standard received dam level information, Shashe Dam was said to be full to capacity.
“We still expect rainfall to be spread over the country until the end of the season in March 2009,” said Othata Mmolotsi, a principal meteorologist. “This will, in turn, be a good thing for our dam levels country wide,” adding that there is a possibility of heavy rains as we approach the end of the rainy season.
Should this happen certain dams will increase thus extend the number of months of supply without inflow.
Other dams, like Bokaa and Nnywane, are already 100% full while Letsibogo increased to 81 percent from 69 percent before the rains began. Gaborone Dam, the largest dam in the country, was 56 percent full before the rains but currently is 72 percent full and the Water Utilities Cooperation projects that it can last 22 months without in further flow.
Though the rains came late for farmers, the results that are witnessed by the WUC are impressive as all dams can already supply for a period longer than a year without any more inflow.
Matida Mmipi, the Public Relations manager of WUC, told Sunday Standard that regardless of the rains that were experienced in the past week, they had no plans of lifting the water restrictions.
Mmipi said the cooperation looks at a lot of factors before reducing the water tariffs and there are currently no plans to reduce the tariffs as they were last reviewed in 2003.
Intimbale dam has not been officially handed over to the WUC, thus information about it is not yet available for the public.
