29 Mar 2017

Kasane township is a ticking environmental bomb. Based on recent findings from several researches carried out by one non-governmental organisation and corresponding views held by the Chobe District leadership, it would seem the future of the tourist town is in jeopardy.  
 Fly causing pit latrines are situated right across pristine tourist attractions producing many flies per day, poor water quality and water shortages, lack of public toilets, littering along the riverfront and poor sanitation are just a tip of the iceberg of mounting environmental challenges that have come to characterise the district. These are a sharp contrast to the picture of an unparalleled tourist attraction that Chobe has come be known for.
 The researches were carried out by the Centre for Conservation of African Resources: Animals, Communities and Land use (CARACAL) over the past couple of years. While the findings of the researches confirmed laymen observations, they also highlighted the gravity of the environmental concerns, some of which have already been raised in various platforms at district level.
 Professor Kathleen Alexander of Virginia Tech University (USA), who is also CARACAL founder, shared their findings with the district leadership and other stakeholders this week highlighting environmental and public health concerns.
 In one of the researches titled “Overcoming barriers in evaluating outbreaks of diarrheal disease in resource poor settings: assessment of recurrent outbreaks in Chobe District, Botswana” published in 2013, Dr Alexander noted that water shortages and water quality deficiencies were identified as factors in frequent diarrheal outbreaks in Chobe District. Tap water in Chobe is often characterised by brownish colour. Flower Town ward in Kazungula has also struggled with acute water shortages.
Findings also revealed the correlation between diarrheal outbreak and density of flies in another survey which sought to establish the relationship between these two variables in households with pit latrines. The research was carried out in Kgaphamadi in Kasane sampling 30 households focusing on pit latrines. “October turned out to be the month with the most diarrhoeal outbreaks, coinciding with increasing fly densities around that time,” she explained. Some of the pit latrines, she said, were attracting as many as 1 000 flies per day.
Of the surveyed households in non-sewered, low income residential areas in Kasane, Kazungula and Lesoma, traditional pit latrines were the dominant form of sanitation accounting for 69 per cent with 14 per cent without any form of sanitation at all. Additionally, most of the surveyed pit latrines were full to the brim.
 “Rental unit ratios per pit latrine were also found to be high translating to high numbers of tenants sharing a pit latrine per household,” Dr Alexander said when presenting her paper titled “Grey water disposal practices in Northern Botswana- the silent spring.” Traditional pit latrines were preferred for grey water disposal across the surveyed villages as the practice is thought to reduce odours and pit latrine fecal levels. However, pit latrines have been linked to contamination of underground water.
For a town which plays host to thousands of tourists every year, there are no public toilets and the few that are there are pay toilets. While this is a widespread practice across the country, pay toilets have been criticised by some for discriminating against those whose socio-economic status is low and cannot afford to pay for their use. Zoning into Chobe where most of the working class are low-income earners employed by the tourism industry, a pay toilet becomes a luxury.
Even worse is the lack of access to lavatories for security officers who work night shifts when offices with bathrooms are closed. It turns out that some government offices and even some tourist establishments in Chobe do not have guardrooms for provision of bathrooms, and leave their security officers to fend for themselves to answer the calls of nature. This further worsens the district’s environmental challenges and strips the officers of dignity.
There is also the question of where houseboats dispose of their waste. While not licensed to operate in Botswana, houseboats licensed to operate on the Namibian side use the shared Chobe River which acts as the border separating the two nations. Participants at the seminar also raised concerns about lodges found along the river bank who are suspected of dumping their waste into the river.
Boats have also been identified as a pollutant to the environment, spilling oil and emitting harmful gases into the environment during boat cruises. Littering along the river bank has also been a challenge with residents complaining that there are no waste bins along the river bank for people to throw litter in.  

CARACAL was presenting summary results of some of their researches as well as seeking the input of communities in mapping solutions to the challenges identified. ENDS