Disaster strikes, NDMO caught napping

Despite early warnings and a meteorological forecast predicting extreme weather conditions, the National Disaster Management Department appears to have been caught off guard once again—an oversight likely to lead to a huge economic cost to the nation and strain the already burdened national purse. For years, concerns have been raised over Botswana’s disaster preparedness and response strategies, particularly regarding floods. However, stakeholders have made little progress in improving these crucial areas. 

In an interview this week, the Director of Meteorological Services, Chandapiwa Sebeela, distanced her department from the crisis, emphasizing that they had fulfilled their mandate. “We did all we could by issuing a forecast and warning of extreme weather conditions for all stakeholders to prepare,” she stated. 

Sebeela further revealed that her department had collaborated with the Disaster Management Department to release an official press statement. However, she acknowledged ongoing criticisms of Botswana’s reactive approach to disasters, saying, “In the future, we plan to send messages directly to citizens rather than relying on press releases. Accusations that we are reactionary as a nation have some semblance of truth.” 

Meanwhile, attempts to reach the National Disaster Management Office for comment proved futile. Its director, Dr. Nkosiabo Moyo, declined to respond, citing an overwhelming workload due to the crisis. He instead referred inquiries to his senior officer, Tapologo Kwapa, whose phone remained unanswered. 

In 2022, Scholars, Gorata Samuel Ditiro B. Moalafhi and others published a critical study titled Evaluation of national disaster management strategy and planning for flood management and impact reduction in Gaborone, Botswana which attributed Botswana’s generic national disaster management strategy woes to “low technology uptake as use of technological advancements to respond to the changing dynamics of flood disasters are not assimilated into the current strategy, planning and policies which appear outdated. 

This, therefore, means the national management strategy, plan, and policy has reached their design life and thus should be replaced as a matter of urgency.” 

According to the report “Botswana’s disaster management strategy, plan and policy are more on provision of relief than preparedness” and “the disaster management cycle is not followed systematically in Botswana since only relief is provided and the response is reactive and not proactive”. 

Floods and droughts are the most common natural disasters in Botswana that have and continue to result in huge economic losses and loss of life. According to the study “flood disasters come about due to intersection of flood waters with areas that are unprepared to deal with flooding, mostly due to poor physical planning and layout of developments and corresponding storm drainage networks especially in urban areas” 

“With the case of Botswana, this is further exacerbated by ineffective disaster management strategies which are limited in providing comprehensive and proactive guidelines for mitigation and adaptive measures. Further, failure of the Botswana disaster management strategy is as a consequence of it being used as an all-purpose disaster management framework that does not recognize that different types of disasters have their individual unique challenges.” 

Botswana’s strategy is structured in a way that it shows mainly products of consultation and inputs by different stakeholders such as the police, military, health, agriculture, the red-cross and other private stakeholders. 

The study stated that “it is thus imperative that the country develops pro-active and efficient disaster management strategies that are reviewed periodically to keep up with current emerging challenges especially regarding flooding.” 

In Botswana, the country suffered from several drought and flood related disasters which have affected 1.5 million people and economic losses of over US$3 million to the country between 1965 and 2006, the report said. Between the years 2009 and 2014, over US$4 million,according to the report, was expended to provide relief for flood disasters alone. Damages due to flooding and associated costs are mostly felt around the capital Gaborone and its surroundings due to high investment in infrastructure and high population densities over the area. The increasing intensity of destruction caused by recurring floods on a yearly basis in the capital Gaborone is widely believed to be an indication that the existing plans are not adequate to manage floods.