SPEDU continues work despite EU pull out

CALISTUS KOLANTSHO
Correspondent | Tuesday February 2, 2010 00:00

 

The EU, which has played a pivotal role in the Unit providing monetary and human resources, has announced that it will no longer finance SPEDU after its funding programme ended in December 2009.

Speaking to Mmegi yesterday, Moshashane said SPEDU will continue to operate but insisted, 'projects that we had planned to undertake will suffer.'

Moshashane who expressed disappointment at this turn of events said he expected more to have come out of the Pitso (SPEDU national conference) in terms of finding alternative funding sources. He, however, said the EU pull-out should not make people panic, even though he was not sure whether SPEDU would be included in the forthcoming national budget to be announced on Monday.

Speaking during the national conference, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Botswana Paul Malin announced, 'funding by the EU has now been stopped but we will continue having interest in the town to see that the diversification plan is achieved.'

EU played an active role in the formation of SPEDU and even provided a long-term advisor who assisted in the initial operations of the agency.

'EU funded the economic study of Selebi-Phikwe region and we also allocated funds to assist in the formation of SPEDU,' noted Malin.

The EU envoy said the funds that were allocated to the region were used to finance different environmental studies such as identifying pollution in the soil and vegetation including surface and underground water in and around BCL mine.

The other study carried out was in assisting BCL mine towards environmental planning and rehabilitation as well as researching on opportunities in reducing the smelter emissions.

He told the gathering, 'the mine dust and emissions exceed both national and international standards and these emissions have detrimental environmental effects and direct health effects on the population.' 

SPEDU also did a study, which looked into possible tourism and industry opportunities for the diversification that took place in 2009. The agency looked into the environmental situation and tourism development of the Letsibogo Dam, a study on horticulture potential and a study on heavy engineering facilities in BCL. Malin said the European Union must agree with the government on a limited number of projects to be funded through the Re-Employment Account (REA). He explained that the account was established at the beginning of the EU intervention in 1991 and its main objective is to finance major interventions supporting the economic diversification of Selebi-Phikwe.
'We expect that upon final repayment by BCL in 2011, the figure for REA will be in excess of P600 Million. We will work hard in ensuring that REA funds are used to the best possible advantage of the community and economy of Selebi-Phikwe,' said Malin.