13 Mar 2018

Australian government through the Department of New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Services has donated six fire-fighting trucks to Botswana, thanks to the initiative by the former Ambassador of Botswana to Australia, Mr Molosiwa Selepeng.

The trucks were presented to the Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism , Mr Tshekedi Khama by the Australian Ambassador to Botswana, resident in South Africa, Mr Adam McCarthy.

The two dignitaries also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of fire and disaster management.

The NSW Rural Fire Services will also hand over a donation of fire-fighting trucks as well as protective clothing to be used during fire outbreaks.

Speaking before the signing of the memorandum, Minister Khama thanked the  Australian government for the generous support in assisting Botswana in fighting fire outbreaks.

He said it was important to sign the MoU so that Botswana could continue to learn from Australia, which has a successful  record in managing veld fire.

Minister Khama  appealed to communities  to give a helping hand during fire outbreaks so that the country could succeed in managing fire outbreaks.

In most cases, he said fire outbreaks were a result of human behaviour, saying  Batswana should change their mindset for the prevention of the degradation of the environment.

The Minister explained that due to the recent heavy downpours across the country and that the vegetation continues to respond well, there was a likelihood that the country might experience huge veld fires.

He assured Australia that Botswana would put the donations to good use.

“It’s upon us to be responsible and look after this equipment for effective usage,” he added.

For his part, Mr McCarthy explained that managing fire in Australia was also a challenge because of the frequent fire outbreaks.

However, he said Australia had a record in fire management.

Mr McCarthy further explained  that Australia was working round the clock to start another project called Community Fire Management, which would assist rural communities in fighting fire outbreaks.

He commended Mr Selepeng for the initiative, adding that Australia was committed to working with Botswana in various collaborations.

This was the second MoU signed between the government of Botswana and Australia on fire management, with the first one signed in 2009.

In 2008, Botswana suffered fire outbreaks tremendously, way  more than the previous fire seasons.

An area covering 11 846 790 hectares was burned.

This led Botswana to seek technical assistance from other wild land fire advanced countries such as Australia and USA.

The government  sent a delegation to Australia to benchmark on their wild land fire fighting programmes, and the interaction resulted in the first MoU on Fire Management being signed in 2009 between Botswana and New South Wales Rural Fire Services, marking the beginning of the collaborative efforts between Botswana and Australia.

It was through the first MoU, which has now elapsed, that the Australian government offered basic fire-fighting training courses to over 6 000 fire fighters including government officers as well as ordinary communities members in Botswana. Ends