26 Oct 2016

United Nations special envoy on El Nino says he has been appointed by the UN secretary general to visit some countries that had high and negative impact caused by the effects of El Nino.

Speaking at a meeting with the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ambassador Machario Kamau said in some countries the impact was positive in the sense that there were more rains, they got better crops and animals were doing better especially in East Africa.

He noted that Botswana had had a lot of experience with issues of drought and severe and extreme climatic events and this was due to the fact that Botswana was a desert country.

“What is unique about Botswana is that despite these conditions of facing a severe climatic condition, Botswana consistently avoided stepping into humanitarian crisis,” Mr Kamau  said.

He said this is not a small thing as many countries face similar situation as Botswana, but in their case, they end up in humanitarian crisis where human lives are lost let alone that of animals and the vegetation.

Mr Kamau  said the other reason for their visit was to learn from Botswana’s experience and know what is about Botswana’s system of government and administration, investment and policy programmes that makes all these things to work.

He said the other reason is that Botswana declared drought, took it as a national emergency and that there is an appeal for assistance and they as special envoys wanted to come here as a sign of solidarity with the government and the people of Botswana to map out how the international community could assist the country.

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Slumber Tsogwane said the visit took place at the time that Botswana and the rest of SADC region was grappling with the worst drought since 1980.

Mr Tsogwane said even if the situation improved in terms of rainfall, the recovery would be long and hard in light of the drought severity and its cumulative impact over the last three years.

He said Botswana was characterised by poor and unreliable rainfall and as part of the country’s monitoring strategy, a drought and household food security assessment is undertaken annually.

“The initial assessment was undertaken from 1st February to February 26 and the findings of the assessment indicated that there was a significant decline in rainfall distribution both in space and time for October to March 2015/16 rainfall season,” he said.

He said there were notable improvements in the conditions of livestock as a result of the February/March rains.  ENDS