27 Mar 2017

Dean of Faculty in the Department of Science at the University of Botswana, Professor Julius Atlhopheng has made a call for the need to capacitate institutions that would help bring awareness about issues of climate change and the impact it may bring.    
Speaking during the Earth Hour Celebration held at Gamodubu on March 25, Prof. Atlhopheng said it was important that institutions such as media houses, youth as well as political leaders were capacitated to reach out to a larger section of the society through information dissemination on how global change could impact on people’s lives if nothing was being done to prevent its reparations.   
Professor Otlhopheng said it would be difficult to put a message across and think it could make an impact when there was not enough capacity to reach out to people.
He made emphasis over the fact that issues of climate change should be incorporated in planning processes of national development and the district development plans so that issues of climate change was cascaded to all sectors.
The planning he said should also be made looking at the fact that climate change impacted differently on people’s life by identifying hotspots that were critical areas and make priorities on how dire or acute the needwas in making certain undertaking in specific areas.
Global change he said was a global phenomenon that required action by all as well as introspection to protect lives through avoidance of massive destructions likely to occur, citing Dineo that severely affected the southern part of the country.
The day as highlighted by the principal energy officer in the Ministry of Minerals Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security Mr Batsumi Rankokwane, was started by Wena Trust populary known for advocacy in environmental issues through its magazine.
The Earth Hour he said was not just to be in the dark for an hour but basically to create awareness on how much energy could be saved if individuals adhered to switching off  lights that were not needed to save energy.
He called for adoption of environmental friendly practices in order to preserve the country’s heritages, through conserving and saving of the natural resources as well as the need to resort to alternative technologies such as renewable energy technologies.
“As a country we must work hard to assist our communities to adapt to climate change and to raise awareness among decision makers about the impact that climate change may have in different sectors of the economy if there was no adherence”, Mr Rankokwane advised.
Ms Florah Seboni, managing director of Wena Environental Education and News Trust highlighted that the day was not only celebrated at Gamodubu but also in some other parts of the country including among others, Francistown, Malotwane in Kgatleng area and Letlhakeng village in Kweneng West.
Gamodubu celebrations first started with a five kilometre walk from Gamodubu junction from the Molepolole/Gaborone road to the village kgotla with the aim to sesitise people in and around the area about the importance of serving energy to reduce the impact of global change. ENDS