02 Apr 2014

Government is in the process of developing a policy for climate change to help the country mitigate the effects of climate change.

Speaking at the commemoration of Earth Hour in Gaborone, Member of Parliament for Gaborone South and also ambassador of Earth Hour Mr Kagiso Molatlhegi said the policy would help the country adapt to climate change.

“What we need to ask ourselves is are we ready for climate change and how can we adapt to it so as to reduce the effects of it in our country,” he said.

He said the impacts of climate change affect all sectors of Botswana’s economy citing health, transport, agriculture and infrastructure development.

Mr Molatlhegi said if government does not come up with the necessary legislature for climate change people would suffer adding that Botswana is already experiencing the effects of climate change in the agricultural sector. “We are no longer having normal patterns of rainfall and that has changed our ploughing cycles.

We cannot fill up our dams because some parts of the country receive little or no rainfall at all,” he said. He also said climate change has brought in prolonged droughts.

Mr Molatlhegi indicated that Batswana need to adopt smart agricultural techniques and modern technologies for farming to fight the effects of climate change. He said climate change presents the opportunity for job creation. “We can create green jobs as one way of beating unemployment,” he said.

For her part, Ms Florah Mmereki, owner of Wena magazine, which is an environmental magazine said, “Global warming needs to stop as it has caused many catastrophes in the world,” she said.

She said Botswana has not been spared the effects of global warming and people need to act now.  ENDS