23 Jun 2022

The Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) will continue to explore ways to contribute in improving the socio-economic status of communities residing along the Okavango River Basin.

The co-chairperson of Okavango Basin Steering Committee for Botswana, Dr Kobamelo Dikgola said this at the ongoing OKACOM annual meeting attended by delegates of three basin member states: Botswana, Namibia and Angola in Maun.

The basin member states share a common objective of improving the living conditions and livelihoods of communities across the basin with minimum adverse impact to the ecosystem.

Dr Dikgola said the river basin remained intact as it had not experienced any contamination even though OKACOM member states had plans to undertake some developments.

She said the river basin played an important role not only in the lives of the local communities but also at national level. The tourism potential of the basin, she said, was enormous due to its high ecological integrity and outstanding biodiversity.

Although, Dr Dikgola appreciated that there was an increase on various large scale water development projects aimed at generating economic benefits she noted that implementation should be done in accordance with existing laws of the member states to ensure no adverse impacts on the ecosystem and its water resource.

“We have not experienced any burning issues in the previous years with regard to the management of the river basin even though some projects such as agriculture production are taking place. We are happy that members of the community are vigilant in the use of things such fertilizers,” she added.

Furthermore, Dr Dikgola acknowledged support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and European Union (EU) towards the implementation of OKACOM strategic action plan citing livelihoods demonstration projects identified by the member states.

In Botswana, UNDP through OKACOM in collaboration with Ministry of Agricultural embarked on a demonstration project within the vicinity of Maun and Shakawe in an effort to improve food security in Ngamiland.

The project is focused on enhancing horticultural produce through climate-smart practices with a view to link horticultural production with the up-market tourism value chain and other local markets.

Through the project, farmers were successfully supported with appropriate resilient infrastructure that enabled them to produce high value crops all year to sustain market demand. The expectation was that upon acquiring the knowledge, farmers would pass it on to the rest of the farming community in the district.

Dr Dikgola further noted that the EU transferred a large collection of advanced equipment to monitor and protect the river basin. Data collection, she said was critical adding that the equipment would allow OKACOM to gather different streams of data like water quality, river levels and flows as well as ecosystem surveys among others.

OKACOM’s vision is to promote and strengthen the integrated and sustainable management, use and development of the Cubango-Okavango River Basin at national and trans-boundary levels according to internationally recognised best practices so as to protect biodiversity. ENDs