23 Mar 2015

The Southern African Development Community programmes officer (infrastructure and services), Dr Nsadisa Faka, said climate change knowledge is vital in future planning and production, especially in the agricultural sector.

Speaking at the commemoration of the World Meteorological Day in Letlhakeng on March 21, Dr Faka said such knowledge was even vital in other areas such as preservation of resources as well as infrastructure development planning.

He, however, raised a concern that despite its vitality, the current level of resourcing and regional coordination among the member states in the provision of climate services was insufficient to meet existing of future requirements.

“Existing public mechanisms are inadequate to provide incentives to the private sector to collaborate in climate research and development leading to new products and services,” he said.

Dr Faka said the insufficiency is despite the fact that past and recent events in the region and elsewhere in the World such as droughts, floods and tropical cyclones have had a devastating consequences on social amenities and infrastructure, which in turn affects the economy as a whole.

Dr Faka said this therefore calls for the region to set up a framework in which all stakeholders can interact and create a National User Interface Platform for coordinating the dialogue between climate providers and users from the private sector.

Dr Faka also raised concern that SADC is still far from achieving optimum early warning capability regarding adverse weather conditions necessary to enable adequate preparation to avert their negative effects on communities.

“There is therefore, need for working together at regional and global levels to address, among others, issues relating to early warning systems,” he said.

He however, revealed that SADC is making an effort to strengthen the Climate Services Centre in order to increase its capacity and render support to National Meteorological/Hydrological Services in providing specialized forecasts and climate prediction capabilities.

Dr Faka also stressed the need for an information repository portal that can provide ready access to information related to financial decision making as well as a one-stop-shop for raw scientific data and analysis among others.

For his part, the Director of the Department of Meteorological Services, Mr Thabang Botshoma also reiterated the need for an international sharing of weather information, saying that in this era, no country can stand alone.

He said there is also a need to disseminate education on the consequences of climate change, especially to the youth who are the future generation.

He said in Botswana, consequences of the effects of climate change are visible in factors such as erratic rains, which now occur outside the traditional rainfall season.

Mr Botshoma also hailed the department for its growth, from its infancy stages in Mafikeng to an internationally recognizes institute that boast of professionals as well as quality equipment which is able to provide more accurate forecasting.

The theme of the day was; “Climate Change for Climate Action.” ENDS