14 Dec 2022

Chapter 8 of the Transitional National Development Plan (NDP), which was adopted by a majority vote in Parliament on Tuesday seeks to implement environmentally friendly sustainable development planning to make Botswana a healthier, greener society.

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Sethabelo Modukanele thus said while presenting the chapter on behalf of the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Ms Philda Kereng.

Mr Modukanele said mitigating climate change and environmental sustainability had been fused into the country’s development planning.

He said key outcomes for the chapter included addressing climate change and mitigation, ensuring clean air, integrated water provision, wastewater reticulation, protection of the environment as well as sustainable human settlement.

Mr Modukanele said government was working on improving sustainable land management and efficient allocation of land including the move towards automated land issuance.

He also said the chapter would implement policies and strategies already developed to unlock opportunities for the private sector, prioritise the development of value chains in order the generate income and job opportunities for local communities.

Mr Modukanele further said value chains were being currently developed with the assistance of the UN, the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and the private sector to ensure that resources such as phane, sengaparile and others were processed.

He added that the Integrated Waste Management Policy was promulgated to guide shared responsibility among stakeholders to ensure better environmental protection.

Additionally, Mr Modukanele said the lifting of the hunting ban in 2019 taken after extensive stakeholder consultation had led to around P50 million being raised by communities through hunting concessions.

Debating the chapter, Minister of Justice, also Chobe Member of Parliament, Mr Ronald Shamukuni called for communities that live close to wildlife areas to benefit from such fauna, and also praised the re-introduction of hunting as it had generated funds for community-based trusts in his constituency.

Mr Shamukuni also said smart agricultural strategies such as zero tillage and organic manure usage were important in responding to the effects of climate change.

Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mmadinare MP, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi said the upcoming Temo Letlotlo agricultural programme would support the farming of different crop varieties and also their processing as well as downstream industries.

He called for the speedy implementation of cultural tourism, the utilisation of dams for tourist businesses and for community-based organisations to be given more concessions for hunting in order to generate revenue and assist in reducing the high elephant population.

Mr Molebatsi said a 50-megawatt solar power station was going to be constructed in his constituency, which he lauded as a welcome development in terms of promoting sustainable energy.

He said the Selebi Phikwe Rehabilitation Plan contained in the transitional plan was a welcome move and called for Mmadinare residents to benefit since they had moved from their farmlands when the BCL copper-nickel mine in Selebi Phikwe was established.

For his part, Nata-Gweta Member of Parliament, Mr Paulson Majaga called for better Disaster Fund budgeting, since some parts of the country were prone to environmental disasters.

He also called for accelerated implementation of policies including migration to solar energy and for better research on environmental protection.

Maun East MP, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile said the Community Based Natural Resource Management had been promulgated as a policy, rather than as an act of Parliament, and needed to be strengthened to ensure community trusts operated better.

Mr Kekgonegile said the country needed to address the situation of elephants being highly concentrated in the North West region, leading to deforestation and human-wildlife conflict.

He called for culling to address the situation.

He also said the quality of water in his constituency was poor, which compromised the people’s health, a situation he said needed to be addressed.

Serowe North MP, Mr Baratiwa Mathoothe said forestry reserves in the country had taken up large tracks of land across the country, which he said denied citizens the opportunity to be productive in agricultural development.

Parliament closed Tuesday’s business by unanimously voting in favour of adopting the chapter, whose sustainable environment thematic area comprises seven ministries namely the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ministry of Minerals and Energy, Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Public Works, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. ENDS