14 Sep 2016

Member of Parliament for Nata/Gweta has advised residents of Sepako that they should not be against the location of boreholes rather they should request that there be more of them to address water problems which lead to human/wildlife conflict in the area.

Mr Polson Majaga said this during a kgotla meeting addressed by Assistant Minister of Agriculture Mr Kgotla Autlwetse in Sepako recently. 

 Mr Majaga was responding to  residents’ concerns that though there was consultation on the location of boreholes for wildlife, the sites which the boreholes were placed was not the one initially agreed upon.

Mr Kemmonye Mong said the current location was going to cause  problems as available water would attract wildlife. 

With the location of the borehole only nine kilometres away from the village, he said efforts to curb human/wildlife conflict would not bear fruits.

In addition, the residents stated that ploughing in their area was not profitable for them.

They said wild animals such as elephants destroy their produce making it impossible for them to be counted among producers who could help the country improve food security.  

Another farmer, Mr Samuel Molefi said they had made efforts to fence their fields and put up other measures to stop wild animals from destroying their produce.

However, he said it takes time for wildlife officers to inspect their fields if wild animals had destroyed their produce and in the process lose evidence that could have been used to back up their cases for compensation. 

In his response, Mr Majaga said Sepako residents were located along the border and should appreciate efforts made to curb wild animals invading their village in search of water. 

Therefore, he appealed to them to request for more boreholes along the border line to increase more sources of water, which would keep animals away from the village. 

Meanwhile, Mr Autlwetse informed the residents that although some zones in Botswana had been decleared free from Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), their area being Zone 3B, is yet to be cleared.

As a result, he said they were still not able to supply their beef to the European Union. 

He nonetheless said efforts were still being done to have the area assessed and eventually decleared free from FMD. 

Furthermore, he appealed to residents to help government fight animal diseases because some people still believe that it was government’s role alone to address some of the breakout of animal diseases. 

He said it was also their responsbility to protect their livestock. ENDS