15 Nov 2015

Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB) has handed over building material worth P18 000 to Senonnori Village Development Committee (VDC) to refurbish one their old dilapidated house.

CAAB has also pledged  labour and supervision  of the project  until its completion. 

Speaking during the handing over, the deputy permanent secretary in the ministry of Transport and Communications, Ms Rose Sennanyana said the refurbished house would be leased out  for purposes of generating income for the community.

She observed that most VDCs had been unable to generate funds to carry out community developments projects and as such the refurbished house would boost the financial muscle of the VDC and enable it to carry out other income generating projects.

Giving an overview of the project, CAAB manager, Mr Larona Mokete revealed they came to rescue the committee as it does not have adequate funds to carry out the necessary renovations .

He explained that the house was built in 1996 as a labour intensive project at the time when the Contagious Bovine Pluearenium Programme (CBPP), a cattle lung disease had erupted .

During that time, Mr Mokete said all cattle in Ngamiland were killed in an effort to eradicate the disease and that resulted in the community’s source of livelihood being cut out. 

He said upon realising that their efforts to eradicate the disease had negatively affected the economic survival of the communities, the government started implementing various projects to mitigate the situation.

One of the projects undertaken was infrastructural developments which created employment amongst the affected communities,  Mr Mokete stated.

Most of the projects he mentioned included housing  and were handed down to VDC so that they could benefit from them.

For his part, the ward councilor, Mr Kenson Kgage thanked CAAB for their noble gesture noting that it is pleasing to see companies extending a helping hand towards the community developmental projects.

He said recently, they submitted their projects proposal to be incorporated in the District Development Plan 8 (DDP 8) but most of them were unsuccessful.

He said VDC is faced with a challenge of renovating its old dilapidated houses due to financial constraints. 

The area councilor expressed concern that some tenants  defaulted  rent, which made it difficult for the VDC to carry its mandate.

 “You have rescued our VDC, this is a huge project which would make a big difference in the village. 

That really indicates that CAAB recognises the important role played by our VDCs in project implementation,” he added. Ends