Botswana loses 1.3m hectares to veldt fires
Chakalisa Dube | Thursday October 26, 2017 15:39
National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) director, Moagi Baleseng said this when speaking at a two-day national disaster risk reduction preparedness conference which kicked off here yesterday.
Baleseng said that increasing amounts of biomass in most parts of the country were fuelling the increase in the number of hectares affected by veldt fires.
“Following the heavy rains (particularly the Dineo cyclone) that the country experienced early this year, there has been a build up of a lot of biomass,” he said.
According to the director, when there is a lot of grass, the chances for fire breakouts are very high.
Although he did not name the areas most affected by the veldt fires, the Ngami and Central districts regularly record many incidences of veldt fires because of the higher amount of rainfall they often experience.
Baleseng, who could not quantity the amount of the fire damage in monetary or other terms, said that his office has effectively managed the situation.
“We also urge members of the public to come forward and help us deal with veldt fires.
Most of the time they do not help us because they assume that it is the sole responsibility of the government to deal with veldt fires.
“However, they also suffer the negative consequences caused by veldt fires and thus they should also come forward and help in case of an outbreak.”
In Botswana veldt fires contribute to the destruction of fauna and flora as well as costs incurred in fighting the fire and provision of aid among others.
Meanwhile, Baleseng highlighted that there is a great need to improve the level of counselling given to victims of natural disasters.
The service should also be extended to those roped in to assist those who are affected by disasters, he further noted.
“It is evident that we are not doing enough to counsel those directly or indirectly affected by natural disasters such as floods.
Because of lack of counseling some of the victims affected by disasters struggle to recover from the trauma they have gone through. Some do not recover at all.”
He explained that in future his department will work very closely with social workers to ensure that adequate counseling is provided to disaster victims.