09 Oct 2015

The Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama, says it is the responsibility of every Motswana to deliver a clean environment to the future generations. Mr Khama was speaking at the official opening of the parliamentarian workshop on climate and sustainable development in Gaborone.

The minister stated that it was important to note that adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate variability and change had assumed a prominent place on the climate agenda in the country, region and the world over.

He said Batswana should adapt to the changes citing an example with the North/ South carrier which he said had it not been in place there would be no water hence calling on Batswana to adapt to the water shortage. He further stated that the human race had made a choice to damage and deplete the environment knowingly of the repercussion it brought to life.

“Why do we have water dependent industries around Gaborone when we have dams and water in Selebi Phikwe and Kasane areas? Because we want convenience and we all want to be in Gaborone,” he said.

Mr Khama called on the committee to take the climate change issues seriously and further take it upon them to tackle the issues in parliament.

He said government was experiencing a challenge in Sepako due to elephant migration from Zimbabwe, adding that the environment could not sustain the elephants overcrowding, which led to climatic and environmental impacts.

He said it was upon developing countries to call upon the first world countries who have not signed the Kyoto protocol to come to the party and sign.

He stated that Botswana spent lots of money on making this country clean which he said should be the case if people stop littering. SADC Climate Services Centre (CSC) coordinator, Dr Bradwell Garanganga stated that the workshop was timely because climate change should be linked to Vision 2016, Millennium Development Goals and poverty alleviation.

The coordinator said the linkage between climate and the three pillars of life being environmental, social and economic was imperative.

He concurred that human nature has a responsibility to protect this fragile earth for future generations. The advantage of addressing parliamentarians, he noted, was that they have constituencies where they could address and reach a wider audience.

 

Dr Garanganga stated that SADC through the CSC was widely involved in climate change issues and trying to avert all processes that contribute to climate change. Ends