Thousands of Batswana could literally see their livelihoods dry up before their eyes, reports Ruaridh Nicoll
A UNITED STATES company has offered to build a factory in Namibia if it receives a contract to supply pipe for a controversial project designed to drain water from the Okavango River, which feeds the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana.
The Namibian government, desperate to ease the pain of drought facing the country and Windhoek in particular, plans to take water from the river in a move that conservationists argue would put the delta at severe risk.
Earlier this month two executives from Owens Corning, a company based in Ohio with strong South African interests, met senior figures in the Namibian government to express an interest in supplying pipe – made from fibreglass – to build the 250km final section of Namibia’s Eastern National Water Carrier, which will divert water from a point on the Okavango River near Rundu in northern Namibia to Windhoek, several hundred kilometres away. The pipe will draw 700 litres of water a second from the river. The executives said that the pipe could be manufactured at a local, purpose-built plant.
The Okavango is the third-largest river in Southern Africa. It flows from its birthplace in the Angolan highlands down through Namibia and into Botswana. There it hits the flat plains of the Kalahari and spreads out in a dazzling array of channels that make up the world’s largest oasis.
The delta provides a home to a vast array of wildlife and the tourism it brings is Botswana’s third-largest foreign currency earner. The residents of Maun, a town at the foot of the delta, are terrified that the pipeline will reduce the amount of water the delta receives.
At the moment, a lack of rain in the Angolan highlands has left the area drier than at any time in living memory.
Kehemetswe Saozo makes his living punting tourists through the delta’s reed beds. ”If the water dries up it will be the end of our lives,” he said, referring to Namibia’s plan to pipe the water. ”All the things of our lives are solely dependent on it.”
The Namibians argue that the amount of water they want to take will be negligible and that, because of the drought, they have no choice. ”If we don’t build the pipeline and the rains fail again … To put it bluntly we’ll be in the shit,” said Piet Heyns, the senior Namibian water engineer.
This view is not well accepted in Maun. ”They say the pipeline is the alternative,” said Professor Lars Ramberg, director of the University of Botswana’s Okavango Research Centre. ”Well, I’d like to see some other alternatives.”
This year, for the first time, the annual flood that usually fills the delta did not reach Maun. The town’s water, drawn from boreholes, is drying up. While engineers desperately try to work out how fast the water table is dropping, the area’s white residents worry for their businesses. But at least they can always move elsewhere.
Not so for the black population. ”I don’t like this pipeline very much,” said Tawana Moremi, the delta’s paramount chief. ”We should buy more planes and bomb it.”
Although far-fetched – Botswana has no history of violence towards its neighbours – confrontation between Namibia and Botswana is an idea often raised. Botswana recently tried to buy tanks from Europe but the deal was scotched, most think by a plea from Namibia.
”There has been the suggestion that the Batswana want to buy tanks to shoot at the Namibians because they want to steal water from the Okavango,” said Heyns. ”That is nonsense, the two things are not connected.”
”We were told in June that Namibia had a serious drought problem,” said Momemi Sekwale, leader of Botswana’s delegation to Okacom, a commission set up by Namibia, Botswana and Angola to ensure prudent use of the river. If Sekwale is angry that Namibia has superseded Okacom, then he does not show it: ”The position of Botswana is that we cannot oppose a feasibility study, under the circumstances we can only ask to be kept informed.”
Windhoek’s reservoirs are currently at around 10% of capacity and 40 000 livestock have died so far in the drought. There is no question that the situation is serious.
But the question remains as to whether it is safe to interfere with the delta’s one supply of water. The Okavango is robust enough to survive anything except the water being turned off. If that happens a Garden of Eden returns to Kalahari dust.