14 Jul 2025

The Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) executive secretary, Mr Phera Ramoeli has underscored the need to better preserve and protect the Cubango-Okavango River Basin, to maintain its quality and integrity.

He said OKACOM was among the iconic basins which still had free flowing water across the whole continent and therefore, needed to be well conserved and protected to consider its ecological importance and the dependence of local communities on its resources.

Mr Ramoeli said this during an interview at the just ended workshop on tracking trajectories of change for the Cubango-Okavango River Basin: biodiversity and ecosystem service values. He acknowledged that the basin shared by three countries, Angola, Namibia and Botswana supported predominantly, rural communities located either adjacent to the river or along roads.

“We are estimating over one million people who are highly dependent on the river basin and the resources that it gives to them for their livelihoods. For instance, in Botswana, Angola and Namibia, communities living along the basin make a living through the resource for various activities such as fishing, the fruits supported by the river, the forest and for conservation agriculture as well,” he added.

Mr Ramoeli stated that in Botswana, OKACOM in the past few years assisted some communities especially in Maun and Shakawe with developing horticulture projects that would feed the tourism market.

“Beneficiaries were assisted to adapt to smart agriculture practices with a focus on enhancing horticultural production and linking it to high-end tourism and local markets, and OKACOM supported construction of shade nets and irrigation systems including equipping boreholes and providing water access points.”

Furthermore, Mr Ramoeli appreciated the workshop saying they had met with their alliance partners from different universities and other partners who were trying to assist member states to have and do activities that would enable them to measure and document change taking place in the basin.

He said OKACOM had in the past, undertaken the Transboundary Diagnostic Study (TDS) for the basin, which aimed to assess its state, identify and analyse key issues to the basin’s water resources and ecosystems and to inform the development of a Strategic Action Plan.

“This study came up with results indicating that there was some change happening in the basin such as reduction in flow hence the communities at times experienced less inflows into the Thamalakane River because the Okavango Delta received less water from the source,” said Ramoeli.

The study, he said showed that because of some developments, there were some potential processes of pollution happening mostly upstream such as irrigation, forest reduction among others, concerns that had to be traced, to see how they affected the status of the river if they continued without being controlled or addressed.

Mr Ramoeli was of the view that using science based evidence activities recognised globally by the International Commission Navigation (ICN) to address river basin threats was ideal.

“This workshop is predicated by the fact that we want to be pre-emptive before a crisis happens, we are able to address it and see how best we can deal with the processes,” he emphasised.

An environmental biologist and ecologist, Ms Erica Tavares from Angola also reiterated the importance of protecting the basin and its resources by the contracting parties. She said that the delta was a UNSECO World Heritage site and as such needed to be protected to maintain its ecological beauty.

In addition, she highlighted that currently, Angola did not have much developments taking place along the basin but there were plans to developing mining and some agricultural activities.

Ms Tavares also stated that the government was undertaking the oil exploration project stressing the need for all stakeholders to raise awareness as the project might negatively impact the whole basin. ENDS