Although a very prosperous country, Botswana is severely drought stricken. It has been the past
policy to provide dedicated sewerage systems only for institutions (police stations, prisons, senior
secondary schools, hospitals) with individual households using on site sanitation systems (pit
latrines, VIP's, septic tanks). However, the Government of Botswana is embarking on a programme
to move from on-site sanitation to waterborne sewerage for all people in all its major centres. This
wastewater services provision adds a further demand on the already stressed and precious water
resources. In an era of increasing demand for water, treated effluent from wastewater treatment
facilities is becoming and increasing and valuable resource.
There are about 70 wastewater treatment works (WWTW) in Botswana comprising mainly pond
technology. In Gaborone and Francistown (the bigger centres) activated sludge and trickling filter
technology are being used respectively. The capacities of the WWTW range in size from 90 to 40
OOOm3
per day; the latter works in Gaborone. The majority of the WWTW are associated with
institutions. Many of these WWTW will be phased out and replaced by centralised facilities in the
next 10 years. The treated effluent quality in the almost all of the systems does not meet the WHO
quality requirements for reuse.
During the execution of the Botswana National Master Plan11
for Wastewater and Sanitation, it
became clear that treated effluent (or new water) will become more and more important as a
resource and needs to be exploited as such. "New water"1
is informally being used in many
locations in Botswana, without the quality control and monitoring of the reuse and treatment
system. The applications range from vegetable irrigation to stock watering and the produce been
sold on the local market, without the industry being monitored and regulated. Several additional
opportunities for reuse of "new water" are being formally explored in the main centres as a means
to create employment and for Botswana to be less dependant on South Africa for basic needs. It is
estimated that the ratio of treated effluent to water demand will increase from 5.9% to 15 % in the
next 25 years.
What must Botswana do to optimise the value of this "new water" for its industries and its people?
This paper describes and defines the current practices in Botswana for the use of "new water"; the
issues that surround its use, and sets a direction for a nation desperately needing to "use it" and
not to "lose it".