29 Jul 2019

Director of Department of Waste Management and Pollution Control, Ms Oarabile Serumola has said waste is a resource from which benefits can be derived.

Speaking at the fourth annual inter-oil tournament, Ms Serumola said part of her ministry’s mandate was to promote the economic value of waste.

She said when Botswana gained independence in 1966, the type of waste generated was mostly agriculture based, adding that during that time, a heap of waste (thotobolo) was common, and natural attenuation effect turned the waste into compost.

Furthermore, she said the discovery of diamonds had changed the way of life, from an economic stand point and the country started generating substantial amounts of waste, which was also huge in terms of quantity and complexity.

“The waste became too complicated to handle, and this is a situation that we see today, and some of the waste that we generate is health hazardous, hence we see a sky rocketing number of cancer patients and complications on women during pregnancy and birth,” Ms Serumola said.

Meanwhile, she said the tournament was organised to focus on other areas of waste generated by hydro-carbon compounds in the form of petrol, diesel and oil.

“ In that regard, let me commend Tshole Trust, that as a Non-Governmental Organisation, they are working so hard, through their education, awareness raising and the information they provide in any form, to educate about the dangers of disposing oil everywhere,” she said.

She said oil should not go into the ground, given that once it sips underground, it caused a lot of damage.

The damage, which hydro-carbon compounds generates, she said block the waterways, because of its characteristics, adding that one drop of oil could contaminate aquifers.

Ms Serumola said if oil was not managed properly and affected water surface bodies like Gaborone Dam, it would affect other microorganisms, like fish, ducks which if  contaminated by the hydro-carbon compounds, their buoyancy would be affected.

She said some of the hydro-carbon compounds, were known as cancer causing, hence it was important to manage how oil was disposed. Ends