27 Aug 2020

Chobe District has received additional funding of P4 million for construction of a sports facility in Kasane.

Addressing a full council meeting on August 25, council chairperson, Mr Amos Mabuku, said the P4 million would augment the P6 million initially allocated.

A 16-hectare piece of land near Chobe Junior Secondary School was reserved for the project.

He said preliminary works at the site had started and engagements on the specifications and modalities of implementation would be shared in due course.

On other issues, Cllr Mabuku said the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism had deferred the community based organisations (CBOs) 2020 wildlife hunting quota to the 2021 hunting season.

He indicated that from the hunting quota, Pandamatenga, Lesoma, Kazungula (PALEKA) Trust had sold its wildlife at P7 million while Chobe Enclave Conservation Trust (CECT) sold at P5.6 million.

He said the money had been paid and placed in holding accounts for the two CBOs. 

He however called for concerted efforts and encouraged the trusts to diversify once the funds had been released for utilisation.

Concerning portable water supply in the district, the council chairperson said Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) embarked on reconnections of all standpipes and stopped initiated disconnections in line with COVID-19 cleanliness protocols.

Mr Mabuku said Kazungula-Flowertown had additional water tanks installed and pre-paid standpipes were converted to conventional ones that provide free water. 

He said it was however, imperative for all customers to avoid accumulation of outstanding bills and make payments, adding that domestic consumers owed the corporation P14 million.

On agriculture, Mr Mabuku said the 2019/2020 ploughing season in the district would end next month and preparatory activities for the new season were underway.

He noted that the current ploughing season was a challenging one for the district, despite good rain. 

“The district experienced pest outbreaks such as the fall armyworm, migratory locusts and quelea birds since February until July,” he said.

Cllr Mabuku said the African migratory locust, which infested Chobe West fields and grassland, covered an area of about 8 400ha, out of which only 668ha of the infested area was controlled.

He said in Pandamatenga, where there was an outbreak of red billed quelea birds of about 25 colonies, only 21 were controlled.

“It is however pleasing to note that high crop yields are expected amid continued pest outbreak and out of the total of 41 686.35 ha planted by 729 farmers, a total of 61 729.36 tonnes had been harvest and harvesting is still on-going,” he said. 

He said the most dominating crop was sorghum followed by legumes.

Mr Mabuku said for the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD), the district spent a total of slightly over P9 million and the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security participated during the COVID-19 food basket supply through farmer’s facilitation to supply agricultural produce to the needy and they supplied produce amounting to P464 041.

He said vaccination of cattle for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) was done immediately after lockdown in June with a coverage of 14 300 cattle.

Cllr Mabuku said the ministry had been working with Satau VDC and farmers committee to finalise the construction of a slaughter slab in the village. Ends