Africa-Press – Eswatini. Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini met a delegation from the Green Climate Fund African Division on Monday, he appealed for funding amounting to over R300million to support the country in tackling the climate change crisis.
But we need to ask ourselves if there’s any political will in this country to fight climate change and, if Cabinet as a collective, fully understands the significance of capacitating and empowering the Eswatini Environment Authority(EEA) with resources so that, the State entity could drive and implement programs seeking to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Climate change is a serious global crisis and the world is allocating more financial resources to mitigate its impact but in this country, we are not witnessing a vigorous political will to tackle this crisis.
It is important to state that, climate change manifests to various natural disasters that include destructive hailstorms, drought and/or the subsequent scarcity of water, these natural disasters impact the poor within the various communities.
In context, climate change if not tackled, addressed or mitigated could increase the already high level of poverty in the country.
We previously saw emaSwati who constructed beautiful and decent homes at Ngculwini and other areas but their homes were destroyed by hailstorms and this means, climate change pushed them into poverty.
Any sane Government, with the interests of the people at heart, should have long established or placed the State owned Eswatini Environment Authority as a priority agency and then, pump-in more money to enable the entity to effectively implement climate change programs.
The Prime Minister must understand that, this country is or should not be a charity case, taxpayers money must be allocated to the EEA to fight climate change and, donors must assist a country demonstrating a political will to fight this crisis.
In conclusion, perhaps let me state or declare that, I am not an environmental expert but a journalist.
It is therefore, important to emphasize the importance or significance of having experts tasked with educating emaSwati about climate change.
In this regard and apart from the rural programs seeking to capacitate communities, EEA environment experts must have a program seeking to educate emaSwati about the impact of climate change.
For More News And Analysis About Eswatini Follow Africa-Press
