Botswana wins water race, loses on sanitation-PHK

Speaking at the 4th annual water conference, the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Ponatshego 'PHK' Kedikilwe, revealed that the problem of pollution is made worse by the growth in population and lack of harmonisation of policies between water management and pollution.

'While we discussed the need to optimise water supplies by harnessing wastewater and treating it to drinking water quality standards for portable use, we somehow fell short of water and sanitation as a single entity that requires integration for the betterment of its management,' Kedikilwe said at the official opening of the conference at GICC.

'The reality is that as the population continues to grow and water demands increase rather exponentially and as societies become more urbanised, solutions become more and more complex,' he added.Over 100 delegates are attending the conference that ends today. It is aimed at providing a multi-sectoral dialogue and information sharing among the stakeholders in the water sector.The conference brings together policymakers, academics, water authorities, consumers and professionals from the country and the SADC region.

Kedikilwe told the conference that currently, water and sanitation policies are disjointed and managed between four different government ministries.

'However noble this initiative maybe from water sector's point of view, it may have been a manifestation of bureaucratic hurdles that are counter -productive to the ideals of integrated resources management as it may be deemed to have contributed largely to the disintegration of water and sanitation sector'. The problem is also compounded by fragmented legal framework with a number of acts and numerous policies in water and sanitation combining to make it even more cumbersome and less efficient to deliver a co-ordinated service.

Several acts that cover both water and sanitation include the Water Act for pollution control, Waterworks Act for the establishment of Water Authorities and Waste Management Act for waste management. The minister noted he was impressed by the fact that Self-Help Housing Scheme incorporates water-borne toilet facilities.He added that to avoid pollution of water resource, there must be an endeavour to ensure that pit latrines become 'a thing of the past in all settlements'.Kedikilwe noted that it was envisaged that the development of new dams, water transfer and treatment schemes will facilitate provision of waterborne sanitation facilities.Meanwhile, the minister noted that while Botswana is purported to have achieved the best coverage in water supply in the SADC region, it was evident that sanitation services lagged behind.