Gaborone city regrets lost opportunities
Lack of foresight, bureaucratic tape, stringent demands by political leadership on both sides of the aisle at Parliamentary and local authority levels are blamed for the lack of development along the Segoditshane River, which goes across Gaborone. Although they did not debate at what cost, they recently passed a motion tabled by Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, Tumisang Healy calling for government to consider developing and optimising the economic value of Segoditshane river canal.
The motion was debated with vigour and supported by both sides of the aisle. But, what they all opted to overlook is that, good as it may look on paper, practically it will be just too expensive to embark on.
The proposal to have the project is not new, it was first brought up by the Department of Tourism now called Botswana Tourism Board decades ago. The department economist had come up with ways on how they could augment the flow of water into the river around the clock.
But, it was totally rejected by both the Gaborone City Council (GCC) who showed less interest and cited lack of funds among others. The Town and Regional Planning claimed not to have such plans yet in their City’s master plan.
Botswana is also lagging behind in terms of fully utilising the rain water that passes through most of the streams, as well as the sewage plant water, although some of it is used for some agricultural purposes. But, water from the sewage ponds after going through the Multi barrier filtration, reverse osmosis and disinfection process is not utilised optimally.
As an example, in Israel such water is used for potable standards and agricultural purposes, and in California it is used for artificial recharge of well fields and human consumption, while next to home in Namibia, it is used for human consumption. During the Industrial Revolution, the canals were developed in places like Birmingham in UK and they become busy waterways transporting coal, iron and other heavy goods. As canal industries declined and railways and roads took over the long distance transportation of goods, the use of the canals decreased.
By 1980 all commercial traffic had stopped. Over the years, canals fell into disrepair. However, many have since been restored and their surroundings improved with parkland, housing and many stunning modern developments, creating vibrant areas with shops, restaurants, bars and entertainment. This is almost the same concept that Tourism was trying to initiate.
The plan once again was thrown under the bus, when the then GCC former Mayor, Thatayaone Father Maphongo, a businessman of repute revisited the idea through his well thought vision of developing the city to befit its status of diamond city.
Botswana Guardian retraced the origins of the concept of the Segoditshane river idea was mooted and why it never took off. An interview with Wazha Tema, the Coordinator Strategy Management and Reforms in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development shed light.
Tema says the initial concept was a question to the Kalahari Conservation Society (KCS) brought by some residents and or members of the KCS who were concerned about the environment, mainly concerned about what can be done as people were littering the area including throwing litter into the river.
“Our opinion was once a river line goes through a build-up area of a growing city, it is allowed that we can intervene as KCS in terms of trying to rehabilitate it. Botswana has a conservation policy that talks about wise use. It is in this vein that "you can go in the river and dig so that the natural habitat can still be contained, or you can dig and plant trees indigenous plants. We gave that opinion but then it passed."
Tema adds that after joining the Department of Tourism in 2000, they then launched the National Ecotourism Strategy (NES). "That was my responsibility as the Chief Tourism Officer. One of the projects was to say we needed to make our urban centres attractive.
“We intended to change its outlook so that they match the ecotourism standards and principles and Segoditshane as it crosses the entire city was one of those identified projects which as Department had wanted to progress up with."
"We were thinking to canalise Segoditshane and dig it up so that it becomes a big canal, then divide it into sections including a park. This would also entail ensuring that water flows well and the areas around are well paved," he said, adding that their worry was that in Gaborone, there are limited public areas where residents can do physical exercise.
According to Tema, the plan was to also rehabilitate the area and ensure that the trees and aqua life is maintained. At the time, there was an issue of how the river will be kept flowing throughout the year.
"We intended to build gates that would trap the water during flooding times. However, we realised that overtime, the water would grow stagnant and dirty, therefore thought of releasing it to the bigger Notwane river."
Tema said at the time, they acknowledged that government might not have the money to do the project. However, their idea was that it could be done on and operated on a transfer scheme. For example, the entire area would be divided and private companies requested to develop and maintain exclusive advertising rights on the area.
This, according to Tema would include developing areas like camping areas within the canal. Other activities would include boat drives similar to those done in Rome, and floating restaurants.
"It also supports our principle of attracting the meetings incentives and conferences which of late has been heightened. Segoditshane River passes near the Grand Palm and this could help."