19 Apr 2018

Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) has received 1. 6 million Euros (about P19 million) grant from the European Union towards preservation of the Okavango basin.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Gaborone on April 18, Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Botswana and Southern African Development Community (SADC), Ambassador Alexander Baum said the grant was another example of how EU supported the development of Botswana.

He stated that EU was a long-standing partner of the country and was known to develop a reliable education sector for the benefits of all Batswana.

He emphasised that supporting natural resource was an important priority for EU in Botswana adding the grant  would help establish a trans-frontier wildlife law-enforcement training camp in Botswana, supporting Integrated Wildlife Training (IWT) anti-poaching and trafficking activities in Botswana, Namibia Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Ambassador Baum said the grant marked the beginning of the cooperation with OKACOM, and expressed hope that it would mean the beginning of many fruitful years to come.

He said the regional project was one among many others that EU was supporting especially that EU was a long-standing supporter of regional integration and cooperation with commitment to remain so.

He said cooperation between the three riparian countries was important given the benefits adding that Angola benefitted from the most reliable and highest rainfalls and lower evaporation as it had many more tributaries than its downstream partners Namibia and Botswana, two of the driest countries in the region.

He further said no other surface water was available near the river in Namibia, nor in the delta in Botswana, therefore, the water of the river was more important for these two countries than for Angola. For his part, permanent

Secretary in the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Thatayaone Dede said their ambitions as riparian states, of Angola, Botswana and Namibia, was to use the resource to better livelihoods of the communities of the three countries.

Mr Dede said the impact inflicted on the river’s health, environment and the entire ecosystem remained at the core of the efforts that the riparian countries had invested and continued to explore to ensure that the management and exploitation of the basin was safe and presented opportunities for national development and economic growth.

He said the provision of the financial support from EU to the three countries was in reference to data collection and water resource management.

Mr Dede said this would help streamline efforts to manage quality information that would add value on the conservation, allocation and sustainable utilisation of the basin resources. He said this would also support their efforts in developing effective measures that create prospects to redress poverty, boost the tourism service sector and create employment opportunities for the countries’ communities.

He said the grant would run for three and half years adding that it was no secret that three governments faced various soci-economic challenges and the availability of water and reduction of the rainfall had increased environmental and social implications to the communities.  ENDS