21 Jun 2020

Technicians and training institutions require adequate resources and must be well trained and adequately tooled, Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ms Philda Kereng has said.

Handing over the refrigeration training equipment in Gaborone recently, Ms Kereng revealed that the equipment, procured by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) at a total of over P576 000 would equip local institutions and enable them to deliver on their mandate.

“I sincerely hope that trainers will find this helpful in training more and more trainers and technicians so that Botswana could comply with Montreal Protocol and the economy benefits,’’ she said.

She also indicated that the state of the art equipment was necessary because some of the new gases were flammable requiring specialised training.

“This implementation has provided an opportunity to work with stakeholders in the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research Science and Technology namely Gaborone and Francistown technical colleges and their trainers and ensures that technicians do not fall behind,” she added.

The minister explained that the Montreal protocol was a worldwide cooperation, which Botswana ratified in 1992 and its aim was to protect the ozone layer by obligating parties to eliminate production and consumption of ozone depleting substances.

Such substances, she said were used in Botswana as coolants in refrigeration and air conditioning, hospitality, fire extinguishers and agriculture to control pests as well as propellants for aerosol applications.

Furthermore, Ms Kereng revealed that Botswana complied with its initial obligations of January 1, 2010 to totally phase out Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) consumption.

She added that Botswana was now, as required by the Protocol,  in the process of phasing out of hydro-chlouro-fluorocarbons (HCFCs).

Again, she said the 75th Multilateral Fund of Montreal protocol executive committee meeting approved HCFC phase out Management Plan (HPMP) for Botswana government to the tune of over P5.6 million, which was being implemented by UNEP and UNIDO.

She thanked implementing agencies, which included the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNIDO and the UNDP for their support in ensuring that Botswana met her Montreal protocol obligations.

Receiving the equipment, Minister of Tertiary Education Research Science and Technology, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe said such was demonstration of a beneficial and well-focused collaboration between the Department of Meteorological Services and two technical colleges (BCET and FCTVE).

Dr Letsholathebe indicated that investing in education was a lifetime venture that would result in positive impact in the economy of any country.

He said his ministry’s mandate was to transform the economy from a resource-based to a knowledge-based one and that was a step in the right direction.

“I have been reliably informed that part of the package of this collaboration included training of two lecturers in Good Refrigeration Practices.

I urged the two lecturers to put the skills learnt through such collaboration to good use and make a difference at their respective institutions,” he said. ENDS