Bokaa Dam

The Bokaa Dam is a dam on the Metsimotlhabe River, a tributary of the Ngotwane River, in Botswana. It provides water to the capital city of Gaborone. It is operated by the Water Utilities Corporation.

Structure

The Bokaa Dam was built in 1990/1991 by damming the Metsimotlhabe River, a tributary of the Ngotwane river just south of Bokaa village. The catchment area is about 3,570 square kilometres (1,380 sq mi). The dam is an earthcore fill structure with a crest level height of 14 metres (46 ft). It was opened in 1993. The dam's surface area when full is 6.6 square kilometres (2.5 sq mi). The reservoir is about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) in length and over 500 metres (1,600 ft) at its widest.

Water supply

The Bokaa Dam has a capacity of 18,500,000 cubic metres (650,000,000 cu ft). It is about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Botswana's capital of Gaborone. As of 2012 the dam provided 25% of the water supply for Gaborone and surrounding areas. There were exceptionally dry conditions in the winter of 2012, and the reservoir dried up and was closed in September 2012.

Bokaa

Bokaa is a village in Kgatleng District of Botswana. The village is located around 20 km south-west of Mochudi and the population was 5,765 in 2011 census. The village is just north of the Bokaa Dam.

References

Coordinates: 24°25′35″S 26°1′0″E / 24.42639°S 26.01667°E / -24.42639; 26.01667