San, Russian scheme at odds

By: BRIGITTE WEIDLICH

A PROPOSED irrigation project of gigantic proportions planned to be developed in the Bwabwata National Park could mean that more than 1 000 members of the already marginalised Kwe-San community have to move out of the park and be settled elsewhere, a preliminary report cautions.

Damning report on huge Bwabwata irrigation project

The envisaged 10 000-hectare project of Russian-based Demeter Agribusiness and its local joint venture partner Labour Investment Holdings (LIH), which is affiliated to the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), would further destroy a pristine habitat and stop the annual N$2,5 million the Kwe-San earn from trophy hunting.
“Should the proposed development continue, the Kwe communities in the park would have to be resettled and compensated,” warns the draft scoping report for the proposed Kathmandu Farming Project compiled by the consultants of Enviro Dynamics. The report was released on Friday.
The San community, which has formed the Kyaramacan Trust, applied to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism last year to use areas in the Bwabwata Park which would form part of the irrigation scheme.
The area lies in the proposed Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, which is a project of Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana to attract tourism.
The irrigation project would require 75 million cubic metres of water a year from the Okavango River, equalling the total annual water consumption of Namibia’s population. Since the Okavango River is a shared watercourse, water abstraction at such huge volumes must be agreed on by all countries sharing the river.


In a letter dated February 10 2010 to Enviro Dynamics, the Kyaramacan Trust rejected the irrigation project.
“We reject the proposed project and decided that no intensive farming of that nature can take place in a conservation zone with wildlife and plants that provide food, medicines and cultural benefits to the community,” the letter said.
In the draft scoping report the consultants warn that the soil in the proposed area is not very fertile and that crop irrigation of such magnitude as intended by Demeter Agribusiness would require huge amounts of fertilisers.
Since the groundwater level is close to the surface, the fertilisers would seep through the soil into the groundwater, which again would reach the Okavango River.
“The water resource use and potential water pollution aspect must be considered as a potentially high impact,” the draft report states.
Comments on the draft report can be made until March 19 to Enviro Dynamics. A full environmental impact assessment (EIA) will have to be conducted over the next few months.
This must be submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, which will decide whether to issue an environmental clearance certificate for the project or not.

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