Climate change demands fresh thinking
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday October 26, 2016 16:50
His thoughts, as captured in an article published elsewhere in this edition, resonate with our previous editorials where we stressed the need for responsive, dynamic thinking around climate change in the country. The ambassador says the country has a strong and proud history of using its reserves to build up resilience to extreme weather events, including droughts and flooding. In fact, since the diamond miracle, few are the times when Botswana has required external assistance to cope with droughts and other natural disasters occurring on a national scale. However, as Kamau notes, those days are gone and with declining mineral revenues and the certainty of even more extreme weather events going forward, the policy of using its reserves to cope will not work for Botswana. Climate change has long been knocking on Botswana’s doors, but decision-makers rather than responding effectively, have been running helter-skelter, tripping over various overlapping policies and ignoring the increasingly loud bangs on the door. Even after the El Nino-driven droughts of 2014/15 and 2015/16 and even after witnessing the first drying up of the Gaborone Dam and complete water outages in the capital, the official climate change policy is yet to see the inside of the National Assembly. At central government level, both the ministries of environment and agriculture are either not talking or listening to each other, as one preaches drought resistant crops and another provides seeds, chemicals and tractors for drought prone crops such as maize. At a nutritional level, no one is informing households, particularly those in the rural areas, to prepare for an era where the staple, maize or sorghum meal, may be replaced by other drought resistant alternatives, including cassava.
Who is informing Batswana of the long-term projections for changes in rainfall patterns, that indicates that the eastern districts will become drier, while the western areas become wetter?
The emphasis in previous years has been on responding to the emergencies, but with lower mineral revenues going forward, it is clear that this approach is unsustainable. Government cannot keep waiting for disasters to occur, then clean up the mess with farmers’ insurance, aid for the underprivileged, children and other initiatives. The message going forward should be on building greater resilience and adaptation, starting at rural household level, through a clear and well-funded climate change policy.
At present, donors wishing to assist in this fight are limited to sporadic and episodic appeals for help, often at village level, but the climate change policy will allow engagement at national level for more sustained funding and technical assistance.
Today’s thought
“The new normal demands a different way of doing things, in our actions to reduce and adapt to climate change and in the ways that we prepare and respond to threats.”
- Ambassador Macharia Kamau