25 Apr 2013

Government has been implored to consider waste recycling as a form of job creation for Batswana.

This was said by Serowe South MP, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi in Parliament on April 24 while contributing to the debate on the mid-term review of National Development Plan (NDP) 10 on the chapter on sustainable environment.

Dr Venson-Moitoi said government ought to be looking at other methods of poverty eradication such as waste recycling.

She observed that while other countries continued to create jobs for their people through waste recycling, Botswana continued to export waste recycling jobs to neighbouring South Africa.

Describing waste recycling as a goldmine that should be fully exploited, she said there was need to shift some focus from backyard gardening to this form of job creation.

On a different matter, Dr Venson-Moitoi said it was crucial that the country’s land use policies be re-looked into.

She said the right to land ownership was the last thing that a poor person had and that government was not supposed to be seen to be threatening the right of such people of owning a piece of land.

Dr Venson-Moitoi, who is also the Minister of Education and Skills Development said though she was aware that government was discouraging the sale of plots, she felt not much was being done to punish those who entice the poor to sell their land.

She noted that generally the country’s policies were good but that the challenges were on delivery.

She said government should guard against the failure of its policies and take stern measures against anyone who played a role towards their failure.

MP Peter Siele of Ngwaketse South complained about the rate of environmental degradation that was taking place due to improper human activities.

Mr Siele complained about the degree of sand harvesting that was going on in the country’s rivers.

He wondered whether there was no alternative material that could be used for building instead of river sand to prevent the continued destruction of the rivers.

The MP, who is also Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, also raised concern about the issue of waste management.

He said poor handling of waste especially rubble continued to worsen land degradation hence the need for the problem to be brought under control.

For his part, MP for Boteti North, Mr Slumber Tsogwane decried the growing population of wildlife, in particular elephants.

Mr Tsogwane observed that the animals wreaked untold damage on crops in Boteti, thwarting a lot of people’s efforts to produce food for their households.

The MP also expressed worry about the failure to effectively control veldfires.

He said not much was being done to address the problem as some game reserves such as the CKGR did not have fire breaks around them to ensure that wild animals were protected from fire outbreaks.

On another matter, Mr Tsogwane noted that it was important to promote a peaceful co-existence between humans and wildlife.

He said currently, predators were at risk of extinction as farmers continued to kill them in efforts to protect their livestock.

Also, the legislator condemned the uncontrolled firewood harvesting which he said increased the rate of desertification.

He cited government institutions such as schools and prisons as being on the forefront of such an activity.

MP Tsogwane underscored the importance of turning to the use of coal as a measure of reducing the rate of firewood harvesting.

Making his contribution to the debate, Mr Gibson Nshimwe of Chobe constituency cast further emphasis on the issue of human/wildlife conflict.

Mr Nshimwe wondered what the impact of the decision to suspend game hunting would be when it was already clear that some areas were overpopulated with wild animals.

He also called for the monitoring of backyard garages, which he said contributed to an extent to environmental degradation through improper disposal of used oil, among others.

MP Pono Moatlhodi of Tonota South complained about illegal sand harvesting as well as poaching.

Mr Moatlhodi said the activities had the potential to ruin the economy of the country and thus should be prevented.

He also called upon government to promote farming and consider compensating people when wild animals destroyed their crops. ENDS