18 Jun 2024

Alarming rate of poaching in the North West District, targeting mostly antelopes, giraffes and elephants is a concern, council chairperson, Mr Itumeleng Kelebetseng has said.

Delivering a speech during full council session on Monday, he said predators such as lions and crocodiles were also killed unlawfully for collection of their nails and bones for use in what seems like ritual practices.

“Elephant poaching is prominent in northern parts of the district and is believed to be conducted mainly by foreign individuals from neighbouring countries. Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) and other law enforcement agencies, continue to work tirelessly to curb these illegal activities,” he added.

However, he decried shortage of resources like vehicles and aerial support in some instances saying such hampered anti-poaching efforts and pleaded with councillors to engage their electorates to assist in curbing poaching.

The house also learnt that the district was experiencing severe drought due to low rainfall experienced from previous season. Mr Kelebetseng said rivers, lagoons and other water bodies had dried up while some were on the brink of drying up noting that led to severe shortage of forage for animals.

As a result, he said, hundreds of hippos were stranded in clusters across the district with little-to-no water.

The chairperson acknowledged that DWNP had taken steps to pump water and provide feed for hippos at the highest populated lagoon in Nxaraga.

Such, Mr Kelebetseng said, was a short-term intervention while hoping for floods to slowly make their way downstream. He said the department was also discussing reducing the number of hippos at Nxaraga by relocating some to the delta where there was sufficient water.

He further said the drying water sources exacerbated human-wildlife conflict citing escalation of reports of wild animals intruding into farming land and causing damage to property, killing livestock and generally being a nuisance to communities.

He encouraged the community to report dangerous animals’ sightings promptly and desist from engaging in risky activities that might end with loss of life or injury.

With regard to hydrological monitoring, cllrs were informed that the lower Okavango delta’s river systems along the Xudum, Boro, Santantadibe and Gomoti rivers started to receive annual inflows in April.

Mr Kelebetseng pointed out that the 2024 hydrological year’s annual inflows of the Okavango River at Mohembo were slightly higher than the preceding year citing that the Boro River flood head had passed Xaxaba settlement and was around 73 km to reach Boro-Thamalakane junction, flowing at an average flow velocity of 1.7 km/day.

The Xudum River flood head was reported to be 81 km to reach Nxaraga village flowing at a velocity of 0.68 km/day.

“Generally, the rivers demonstrate variations in flow regimes and continuously deviating from the historical high flows as a result of a series of years of below-normal rainfall patterns upstream in Angola and Namibia and over the delta itself,” he added.

Mr Kelebetseng updated the house on evergreen shrub called Prosopis, which is one of the most invasive alien species causing economic and environmental harm if left unmanaged. The shrub, he said spread rapidly in the rangelands, croplands and forests and threatened pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods.

He noted that the tree had  mainly invaded homesteads at Sanyedi and Boseja wards in Maun with a few also identified at Sehithwa and Tsau.

He called for a robust management of the tree as it posed threat to the biodiversity in the Okavango Delta. Because of close proximity to the Okavango Delta and Maun high water table, the district has employed mechanical (uprooting) control measure to manage it at Sanyedi and Boseja wards, which was expected to end by June.

Uprooting in Sehithwa and Tsau, he said was expected to commence thereafter and expected to be completed by August, adding that 15 temporary labourers were engaged to uproot the plant. Ends