Gaborone Dam is running dry according to a report by Botswana Daily News.

The dam that has a carrying capacity of 141.4 million cubic metres is left with four per cent or 5.6 million cubic metres, a zero yield to supply the city dwellers, the paper reported.

Water Utilities Corporation principal communications manager, Matida Mmipi, said in an interview that after five per cent, the yield became insufficient and below pipes to supply water.

She said Gaborone and the greater Gaborone areas (Kgatleng, Mogoditshane, Tlokweng to Good Hope) used water from Letsibogo, Bokaa, Nywane Dams, Ramotswa boreholes and the Molatedi Dam in South Africa.

Mmipi added that water restriction measures and rationing would continue. She said the corporation was working tirelessly to ensure that Masama boreholes were operational to augment water supply in the southern part of the country.

She said North-South Water Carrier II (NSC II) project was also continuing. The first 78km from Dikgatlhong to just before Palapye had been covered. The 2015 budget speech also highlighted the need to carry out the NSC II project that will be financed at a tune of P500 million.

With low rainfall forecast for this rainy period, the Department of Meteorological Services director, Thabang Botshoma advised that the second half of the rain season, January-March will generally be dry.

He however said more rainfall activities throughout the country were expected early February and that after mid-February, it will be dry with occasional unorganised rainfall. For the past three years, the dam had been threatening to dry up due to insufficient rainfall in the Southern part of the country.

–Botswana Daily News