Debswana Supports Environment

By Martin Nyirenda
Correspondent | Monday July 7, 2008 00:00

 

Launching the Lesedi Primary School Environmental Education Bio-Park in Gaborone, Debswana Group manager (public and corporate affairs), Esther Kanaimba, said on Thursday that the Bio-Park 'is the first at a government primary school in Gaborone if not the whole country'.

The park will serve as a platform to conserve the environment as well as a learning facility for both teachers and pupils.

She said that national Vision 2016 calls for effective measures that will help protect the environment in a sustainable way for posterity.

'The Lesedi Primary School community must be congratulated for living up to Vision 2016 by establishing this environmental education bio-park. It is my hope that the Lesedi Primary School community will take what they learn from this park beyond the school and help conserve the environment in the wider society of Botswana.

'It is the task of every Motswana and every resident of this country to conserve the environment. I implore all those involved with this project to be champions for environmental protection,' Kanaimba added.

She assured the school administration that her colleagues from Debswana Corporate Social Investment (CSI) would be partners with them on the project and lend support, funds permitting.

'This is in line with our CSI programme which aims at creating a legacy of sustainability, hence the partnership with yourselves through our financial support of just over P43,000.'

She was excited that through the environmental education bio-park, the school was addressing environmental related issues in a practical way, one of the key areas in the 1994 Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE), which is environmental education.
Kanaimba pointed out that Debswana is doing everything within its means to foster sustainable protection of the environment, adding: 'In fact, one of our corporate values 'Show We Care' speaks about the need for us to protect the environment in which we operate.'

Debswana prides itself for having a Safety, Health and Environment Policy (SHE Policy), which effectively aims at minimising the impact of its mining activities on the environment.

Two of its objectives are to prevent pollution of the environment and conserve natural and other resources, which are in line with those of the Bio-Park at Lesedi primary school.

School head, Boniswa Tabane, saluted Debswana for supporting the bio-park project, saying the park will go a long way in inculcating a 'lucid understanding of environmental protection' among the learners. She promised the school would utilise the bio-park to the full for the benefit of the pupils.

Association of Environmental Clubs of Botswana (AECB) representative, Modiri Mogorosi, said that the bio-park will help learners to develop and promote a better understanding of the need and importance to protect the environment and other natural resources for the benefit of the people of Botswana.

He said that the AECB strives to create awareness, generate appreciation and spread knowledge and promote interest in the ecological, economic aesthetic and cultural values of Botswana's unique environmental heritage, among others.