Africa-Press – Botswana. Stakeholders have been called to consider mainstreaming indigenous knowledge into their disaster management response plans to help in tackling disaster issues.
This was said by the North West District commissioner, Mr Thabang Waloka at the National Disaster Preparedness Conference in Maun Monday.
He said the linkage between scientific and indigenous knowledge could indeed help to build resilient communities that could respond well during disaster situations.
Mr Waloka said some communities still cherished the importance of indigenous knowledge system as it worked well for them for centuries in reducing the risk of disasters.
He said Ngamiland region was prone to all forms of disasters such as livestock disease outbreaks, cross border floods, plants pesticides, veld fires, human diseases, floods and drought among others, which affected the livelihoods of the communities.
Some floods and veld fires, he said displaced some villagers in some areas while some farmers lost their livestock due to diseases such as senkobo.
He believed that engaging the communities’ socio-cultural systems could work well to reduce the impact.
Mr Waloka also said some elders were convinced that traditional indigenous knowledge had the potential to reduce vulnerability of communities to the impact of natural hazards.
“Our region has seen it all in terms of disaster situations and I believe we should think differently and try to link indigenous knowledge with the scientific information and see how best we can reduce disaster impact on our communities” he added.
The director of National Disaster Management Office, Mr Moagi Baleseng emphasised the need to prepare communities to be resilient to disaster that may happen in the country.
Currently, he said some areas were experiencing a heat wave and implored stakeholders to get prepared and educate communities about such situations, noting that when a disaster struck, there would be no time to plan, but to execute the plan.
The overall goal of his office, he said, was to have a society that was safe and resilient in all types of disaster risks.
“We should have an effective disaster response for any hazard that may occur.
We need to prepare strategies and plans at both local and national levels to be able to respond to disaster occurrences.
We cannot stop disaster from happening, but we should make ourselves and the community bounce back to their normal way of living,” said Mr Baleseng.
Mr Baleseng also updated the gathering on the enactment of disaster risk management legislation, saying it was at a draft stage.
The law, he said, would provide an overarching or unitary legislation to manage disaster in the country.
The legislation will also provide a comprehensive legal framework for proactive, effective and efficient management of disaster risks in the country as well as provide clarity in declaration of disaster at national as well as district level.
The gathering was also apprised on some projects such as National Emergency Operation Centre construction, which was reported to still be at pre- tender stage and ground breaking was expected to be done in May next year.
The objective of the conference was to ensure a high state of disaster preparedness and capacity-building at national, district and community levels for effective, appropriate and timely response against any disaster or emergencies.
The theme of the conference was; Building Resilience to Disasters Through Stakeholder Engagement to Sustainable Development.
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