EU Transfers River Monitoring Technology to OKACOM

Gaborone, 12 October 2021. This morning, the European Union transferred a large collection of advanced equipment it procured for the Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) to monitor and protect the Okavango. EU Ambassador H.E. Jan Sadek and OKACOM Executive Secretary Mr Phera Ramoeli signed a Handover Document during a ceremony held at OKACOM HQ in the presence of Botswana’s representative, Permanent Secretary Ms Bonolo Khumotaka, on behalf of all three Member States (MS), which also include Angola and Namibia.

The following equipment was transferred, among others:

• Eight sets of hydro-meteorological equipment for riverside stations the three MS;
• Four riverboats with spare outboard engines;
• A wide variety of water quality and ecological monitoring equipment;
• Two double-hulled sediment survey boats and sediment coring equipment;
• A drone for aerial surveying of the river basin (three pilots trained to fly it);
• Satellite images of the fluctuating water surface in the Okavango over the last 35 years;
• Specialised hydrological software, customised for OKACOM;
• High-speed internet equipment and services;
• Two four-wheel drive vehicles and sedan.

This equipment will allow OKACOM to gather different streams of data like water quality and temperature, river levels and flows, ecosystem surveys, and historical patterns of droughts and floods from sediment analysis. Collected from water, land and space, this data will feed into an EU-supported Decision Support System which will crunch the data to provide science-based recommendations to decision-makers in Angola, Botswana and Namibia.

“The Okavango delta is a biodiversity hotspot, a World Heritage Site and one of the most iconic wilderness areas on the planet,” said EU Ambassador Jan Sadek. “But the Okavango basin is under threat from pollution, increasing water extraction, deforestation, climate change, and potential oil drilling. We trust that OKACOM’s Decision Support System will help protect the river, its priceless flora and fauna, and the half a million people who depend on it for their livelihoods, from these threats.”

Aside from the equipment it procured, the European Union funded the construction of modern office spaces and a state-of-the-art videoconferencing facility within OKACOM’s building, which officials toured during today’s Handover Event. The value of all supplies and works the EU procured for OKACOM is €2 million out of a total budget of €6 million for the 5-year EU Okavango Transboundary Water Management Programme, which is also providing technical assistance to OKACOM though an international team of top-notch experts, as well as a grant to OKACOM that pays for a team of full-time staff.

For more information, please contact:

The Delegation of the European Union to Botswana and SADC

Bester Gabotlale, Press & Information Officer, +267 721 12660, Bester.GABOTLALE@eeas.europa.eu

Website: https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/botswana_en

Twitter: @JanSadek 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/euinbotswana