Namibian wins top award

A PROGRAMME on the sustainable use of the Okavango River Basin designed by a young Namibian woman won her an international award in Sweden recently.

Dorothy Wamunyima is the project co-ordinator for the transboundary project ‘Every River Has Its People’, involving Namibia, Angola and Botswana. She was awarded the International Water Resources Management Award for her programme to involve communities in water resource management, which impressed many at the four-week water management conference held in Stockholm, Sweden, recently.Wamunyima was among 38 international participants who attended the conference organised by the Swedish International Water Agency.”Everybody was impressed with my programme and even other participants from other countries wished it was theirs.It’s a great achievement,” said Wamunyima, adding that Namibia’s Ambassador to Sweden, Theresia Samaria, had also congratulated her.Because of her impressive project, experts in water management have agreed to come to Namibia to teach people how to use the Okavango River Basin sustainably.”They will come to train my people, whom I work with on a daily basis,” said an excited Wamunyima.She said three Swedish municipalities have indicated their willingness to sign twinning agreements with the town of Rundu.Plans are also afoot to create an Okavango River Basin Board, which will consist of representatives of the Kavango Regional Council, line ministries, NGOs and traditional authorities in the region.She was awarded the International Water Resources Management Award for her programme to involve communities in water resource management, which impressed many at the four-week water management conference held in Stockholm, Sweden, recently.Wamunyima was among 38 international participants who attended the conference organised by the Swedish International Water Agency.”Everybody was impressed with my programme and even other participants from other countries wished it was theirs.It’s a great achievement,” said Wamunyima, adding that Namibia’s Ambassador to Sweden, Theresia Samaria, had also congratulated her.Because of her impressive project, experts in water management have agreed to come to Namibia to teach people how to use the Okavango River Basin sustainably.”They will come to train my people, whom I work with on a daily basis,” said an excited Wamunyima.She said three Swedish municipalities have indicated their willingness to sign twinning agreements with the town of Rundu.Plans are also afoot to create an Okavango River Basin Board, which will consist of representatives of the Kavango Regional Council, line ministries, NGOs and traditional authorities in the region.