Botswana calm as scramble for El Nino funds heats up :: Mmegi Online

Donors have thus far released just $535 million of the $2.9 billion SADC states have asked for to cope with the effects of last season’s El Nino crisis. None of the funding has been towards Botswana, which is looking for $66 million, and yet panic bells are not being pressed. Staff Writer, MBONGENI MGUNI finds out why

The United Nations Special Envoy on El Niño & Climate, Ambassador Macharia Kamau was in town recently and, as he has done elsewhere across the continent, he rang alarm bells on climate change and governments’ ability to cope.

Kamau is particularly concerned that following two successive El Nino-hit seasons, the little output farmers gleaned from their fields this year, is running out. For the region and Botswana as well, December 2016/January 2017 will mark the peak of the El Nino crisis in terms of food security, with government and household granaries running empty, while the season’s crop is yet to reach harvest stage.

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