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.StructureThe 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. The dam is an earthcore fill structure with a crest level height of. It was opened in 1993. The dam's surface area when full is. The reservoir is about in length and over at its widest.Water supplyThe Bokaa Dam has a capacity of. It is about 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.The North-South Carrier (NSC) pipeline came into service in 2000, delivering water to Gaborone from the north and running past the Bokaa Dam. An early version of the NSC plan used the Bokaa Dam as the reservoir, but it was decided to instead build a covered reservoir closer to Gaborone at Mmamashia to minimise loss of water through evaporation. Water from the Bokaa Dam is now injected into the NSC pipeline. Water is treated at the Mmamashia plant, directly to the south.Reservoir usesThere is a picnic spot for weekend visitors on the southern shore. The dam is in a region of Acacia savanna that is used for grazing many livestock including sheep, goats, donkeys and cattle. The fence is in disrepair so the livestock have trampled the water edge into bare mud in many areas.