Commissioning of Botswana’s 367km north-south water carrier project has been postponed to November, due to problems at one of its three pumping stations. The project was originally scheduled for early October 1999. The water project is the largest single project ever undertaken in Botswana. As well as the pipeline, it includes the Letsibogo dam, 75km outside Francistown. In addition a new lower dam on the Shashe river is due to be linked to the pipeline by 2005.
Botswana has its most reliable water supplies in the northeastern part of the country. The new carrier will bring some of that water to the southeast, and to the capital Gaborone. A longer term water plan for Botswana is to tap the Zambezi river and lead water through the main urban and industrial centres, expected to be dry by 2020.