Why Lake Ngami is claiming lives
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Over loading of passengers by operators
When the mighty Lake Ngami is mentioned, most people recall the occasional drowning cases that recently associated with the Lake. Boat accidents have claimed several lives of visitors, boat operators and fishermen. The police have attempted to map what could be causing the accidents. On the other hand tourism officials and conservation officials emphasise the importance of the revered site.
In 2014 alone, Sehithwa Police recorded eight cases of drowning in Lake Ngami. According to the Station Commander, Zakes Masike explains that most the deaths are a result of boat accidents occasioned by waves that overpower the boat; excessive overloading of passengers; and also using the boat whilst under the influence of alcohol.
Police reports indicate that victims of drowning occasionally involve fish traders – but most of the accidents involve people who are new to the lake. Police say people come to explore the lake, “but sadly without knowledge of the dangers that the lake could potentially cause, visitors end up becoming victims to drowning,” said the station commander.
However there is an opposite and debatable argument as to what could be causing the loss of lives. For traditionalists and elders from surrounding villages the main causes of drowning at the lake is the complete disregard of believes and cultural practices that should be performed before one embarked on a journey to the Lake Ngami. Elders stress that for visitors to explore the lake without any danger of drowning its advisable that they pass through traditional healers or leaders of the village to protect them against evil spirits believed to be in control of the lake.
Located at the southern edge of the North West district about 100km from Maun, Lake Ngami lies in the Okavango Delta Ramar Site within Ngamiland. It is situated within a shallow sedimentary depression at the distal end of the Okavango Delta. According to Management Plan for Lake Ngami (MPLN) during the 1980’s and 1990’s the lake was a dry basin which only experienced occasional inflows from the Kunyere and Nhabe rivers.
But since the start of the recent high flood phase in the Okavango system in 2004, the lake has steadily filled and forecast reports point to a possibility of the lake carrying water for the next couple of decades. The area is currently concentrated in six main villages of Bodibeng, Bothathogo, Sehithwa, Toteng, Kareng and Legothwana which fall under the jurisdiction of Maun Administrative Authority (MAA).
The dark side of people drowning at the Lake worries tourism officials because they believe that it is somehow clouding its natural beauty. They believe that these misfortunes kill the essential tourism element of the lake to. Tourism resources of the Lake relate primarily to birdlife viewing and fishing rather than wildlife.
The entire Lake Ngami has been identified by Birdlife Botswana as an Important Bird Area (IBA). The MPLN underscores that Lake Ngami is unique in Botswana and Southern Africa with respect to birdlife and states that there is no other comparable birding area in the region. IBA is a worldwide initiative aimed at identifying and protecting a global network of sites for the conservation of the world's birds and other biodiversity. According to Birdlife Botswana, twelve Important Bird Areas (IBAs) have been designated in Botswana which Lake Ngami is part of. These are birds considered threatened species listed as endangered, vulnerable or near threatened.
According to the Director of Birdlife Botswana Dr Kabelo Senyatso, Lake Ngami being an officially recognized Important Bird Area, the IBAs status to Botswana adds an extra value to the tourism destination of this country.
“Due to this status of Lake Ngami Botswana obviously benefits from the increase of tourists arrival to Lake Ngami,” he added.
Dr Senyatso also expressed concern about increasing cases of drowning at the Lake. He explains that it has a negative impact to the country’s tourism. He says the Lake is viewed as an unsafe area because of the frequent cases of drowning which have unfortunately resulted in deaths. He added that this has led to his office to presently not actively promote tourism to the site until it is developed in terms of bird viewing facility such as piers, a fence, or a bird-hide and well-resourced first-aid kits, as well as competent rescue teams in place.
Dr Senyatso calls on the government to invest both in development of the tourism infrastructure, and conservation of Lake Ngami in order to fully exploit its benefits.
Notwithstanding the controversial influx of Zambians and Congolese traders at the lake, residents around the lake have benefited much in terms of commercial fishing operations which is on the rise at the lake. Most locals engaged in the business of fishing there testify that Lake Ngami has now become a source of economic upgrade for many. They believe that if it were not of the recent influx of foreigners who have disturbed and caused commotion to their business, Lake Ngami could survive the hardship of environmental changes and benefit future families.
Commercial fishing in the lake is reported to have also fuelled a conflict of interest between the same life of birds reported by Birdlife Botswana and fish traders.
Birdlife Botswana Director, Dr Senyatso explains that a conflict of natural resources and artificial fishing facilities arise because fishermen and birds compete for the same fish/food resource. He says these events at the lake negatively impact on the birdlife. He added that the disturbance into the environmental cycle/food chain by human presence affect the normal behavior of the birds.
MPLN informs that unmanaged movement within the lake by fishermen poses a threat to breeding birds because fishermen approach too close to their breeding sites causing them to fly away.
“Fishermen also unwittingly chase birds off nest by trying to feed them, but the dead fish they dump rots and causes birds to abandon the nests. Also this abandoned fishing nets sometimes filled with rotting fish are a threat because they trap birds and livestock,” reads the MPLN.
Explaining what future environmental concerns at the lake might create, Dr Senyatso opines that it is unlikely that Lake Ngami could lose its status of being an IBA within the next five years or beyond.
“IBAs are designated based on long-term population trends of threatened bird species and the condition of habitats at the site, so we remain optimistic that these are improving, rather than being degraded.”
Senyatso advises that Botswana should minimize the negative impact and keep all the stakeholders’ attention on the benefit of Lake Ngami as a tourism destination. He explains that all the stakeholders including tourists, public and private sectors in the tourism industry, and communities residing near Lake Ngami should equally benefit from Lake Ngami.
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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help
President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.
Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”
Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.
On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.
He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”
President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.
“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”
When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.
“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”
He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.
“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:
He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”
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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.
“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”
In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.
It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.
Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.
President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”
In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”
He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.
“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”
Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”
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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV
Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”
Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.
“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”
He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.
Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”
“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”
Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.
“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”