* Donation of Mobile Weather Station a noble gesture
The scorching sun was sworn on assaulting anything on its path on this Thursday morning the 21st of December, 2023!
But not even the intensity of the El-Nino induced drought could deter the resolve of a handful guests that had convened for a special delivery!
The occasion was the handover of a donation of a Transportable Meteorological Ground Application System (TGAS) – simply, a mobile weather station - by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment to Botswana’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
The equipment, worth a whopping P31 million, was built in China, shipped to Botswana fully funded by the Chinese Government.
It is the product of a 2020 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two Ministries done under the South-South Cooperation for Addressing Climate Change.
It also derives from the ‘Belt and Road South-South Cooperation Plan on Climate Change’ proposed by China at the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing, China on the 27th of April 2019.
Minister Philda Kereng signed the MOU for Botswana on that date.
But unfortunately, on this hot December Thursday, she was not present to bask in the culmination of her glorious efforts. Instead, Permanent Secretary Graze Muzila, stood in her stead.
She was accompanied by a strong delegation comprising among others, her Deputy PS, Boatametse Modukanele, the Director of Asia, and Pacific Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Emolemo Morake, and Balisi
Gopolang, the Coordinator of Climate Change.
China was well represented as well. Led by Ambassador Wang Xuefeng, its delegation included Guo Zhenguang, the Ministry Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy as well as Liu Yangsu, Project Manager from China.
Muzila indicated that the TGAS system will compliment, the existing observational capacity which currently boasts a network of 32 Automatic Weather Stations and about 600 rainfall stations, which she lamented “is not
adequate” for a country the size of Botswana.
But what is TGAS?
It is a multi-satellite meteorological satellite data mobile receiving and processing system (meteorological mobile station) donated to the Government of Botswana to help improve the country’s capacity to address climate change and its effects.
The mobile weather station comprises two vehicles specifically designed for Botswana’s conditions fitted with the latest hi-tech state-of-the-art computers as well as satellites that will collect information and data from the five satellites that orbit the earth.
The mobile weather station will provide support in environmental monitoring, agricultural production and extreme climate disaster prevention, so as to help Botswana achieve its goal of environmental sustainable development.
In April 2023, the delivery ceremony of the Meteorological Mobile Station was held in Beijing, China attended by Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China and Dr Batlang Serema, Ambassador of Botswana.
In September 25,2023 after a long journey, the Meteorological Mobile Station arrived in Gaborone.
And since 30th October 2023, the Chinese Implementation Team from Space Star Technology Co. Ltd (China) arrived in Botswana to provide on-site training of the system to the Department of Meteorological Services’ (DMS) team of Engineers, IT personnel, and Meteorologists.
In an interview with Botswana Guardian during the handover ceremony, DMS Project Manager, the Meteorologist, Charles Molongwana confirmed that indeed the DMS team of six technicians; three IT personnel and two Users can now independently operate the TGAS.
The Chinese team’s training pertained to on-site operation, maintenance training, system functional and performance testing of the Meteorological Mobile Station.
They also signed on-site acceptance certificate with Department of Meteorological Services, including providing a series of materials such as system operation and maintenance Manual, cable and network list, system critical
design and operating videos for Botswana users.
Accepting the system, the PS, Grace Muzila emphasised its importance on early warning preparedness and response capabilities especially in relation to climate change challenges that Botswana face.
Muzila noted that as an earth observing system, the TGAS will be used for detection, observation, and monitoring of extreme weather events. The system will be fully utilised to monitor drought, fire point detection, land
surface temperature monitoring as well as aerosol monitoring.
“Today the growing impacts of climate change are making earth observations, research and services more critical than ever. Climate change has exacerbated the intensity and frequency of events such as heavy rainfalls, heat waves, droughts, winter storms, and freezing temperatures which have become destructive, leading to loss of lives and property in some areas”.
In Botswana, for example, frequent droughts are exacerbating water scarcity and thereby negatively impacting people’s health and productivity. The entire ecosystems are dependent on the availability of water.
Muzila said that recognising the water cycle as a bio-physical process is essential to achieving sustainable water management. Likewise, ensuring that everyone has access to sustainable water and sanitation services is a critical climate change mitigation strategy for the years ahead, she said.
With the challenges posed by climate change it becomes critically important for DMS to meet the ever changing needs of stakeholders who demand quality weather and climate information. For his part, Ambassador Wang Xuefeng highlighted that China has been acting through concrete actions on President Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Civilisation, and has made important contributions to global climate governance.
According to Ambassador Wang, eight years ago, President Xi Jinping worked with leaders of other countries to reach the Paris Agreement (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the utmost political determination and wisdom, and embarked on a new journey of global cooperation to address climate change.
In 2020, China made the official announcement that it will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
“This is a much shorter time span than what might be taken by many developed countries, and that requires extraordinarily hard efforts from China”, the Chinese Envoy noted.
In 2022, China’s emission intensity of carbon dioxide decreased by more than 51 percent from 2005. China has completely stopped building coal-powered plants abroad, currently 50 percent of the world’s wind power
equipment and 80 percent of the Photovoltaic equipment are from China.
As the world’s largest developing country and a responsible country, China has always been an active advocate and practical practitioner of South-South cooperation on climate change.
“As of now, China has signed 48 cooperation agreements with 40 developing countries, providing cumulative support of over 1,2 billion RMB to developing countries and training nearly 2, 300 relevant personnel”, he said.
Ambassador Wang said that promoting green development is also one of the important areas of China-Africa cooperation. The green development programme is one of the ‘Nine Programmes’ that President Xi Jinping proposed at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2021.
This Meteorological Mobile Station is just “one of the fruits” of China-Botswana cooperation under the ‘nine programmes’, Ambassador Wang said.
But not even the intensity of the El-Nino induced drought could deter the resolve of a handful guests that had convened for a special delivery!
The occasion was the handover of a donation of a Transportable Meteorological Ground Application System (TGAS) – simply, a mobile weather station - by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment to Botswana’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
The equipment, worth a whopping P31 million, was built in China, shipped to Botswana fully funded by the Chinese Government.
It is the product of a 2020 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two Ministries done under the South-South Cooperation for Addressing Climate Change.
It also derives from the ‘Belt and Road South-South Cooperation Plan on Climate Change’ proposed by China at the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing, China on the 27th of April 2019.
Minister Philda Kereng signed the MOU for Botswana on that date.
But unfortunately, on this hot December Thursday, she was not present to bask in the culmination of her glorious efforts. Instead, Permanent Secretary Graze Muzila, stood in her stead.
She was accompanied by a strong delegation comprising among others, her Deputy PS, Boatametse Modukanele, the Director of Asia, and Pacific Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Emolemo Morake, and Balisi
Gopolang, the Coordinator of Climate Change.
China was well represented as well. Led by Ambassador Wang Xuefeng, its delegation included Guo Zhenguang, the Ministry Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy as well as Liu Yangsu, Project Manager from China.
Muzila indicated that the TGAS system will compliment, the existing observational capacity which currently boasts a network of 32 Automatic Weather Stations and about 600 rainfall stations, which she lamented “is not
adequate” for a country the size of Botswana.
But what is TGAS?
It is a multi-satellite meteorological satellite data mobile receiving and processing system (meteorological mobile station) donated to the Government of Botswana to help improve the country’s capacity to address climate change and its effects.
The mobile weather station comprises two vehicles specifically designed for Botswana’s conditions fitted with the latest hi-tech state-of-the-art computers as well as satellites that will collect information and data from the five satellites that orbit the earth.
The mobile weather station will provide support in environmental monitoring, agricultural production and extreme climate disaster prevention, so as to help Botswana achieve its goal of environmental sustainable development.
In April 2023, the delivery ceremony of the Meteorological Mobile Station was held in Beijing, China attended by Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China and Dr Batlang Serema, Ambassador of Botswana.
In September 25,2023 after a long journey, the Meteorological Mobile Station arrived in Gaborone.
And since 30th October 2023, the Chinese Implementation Team from Space Star Technology Co. Ltd (China) arrived in Botswana to provide on-site training of the system to the Department of Meteorological Services’ (DMS) team of Engineers, IT personnel, and Meteorologists.
In an interview with Botswana Guardian during the handover ceremony, DMS Project Manager, the Meteorologist, Charles Molongwana confirmed that indeed the DMS team of six technicians; three IT personnel and two Users can now independently operate the TGAS.
The Chinese team’s training pertained to on-site operation, maintenance training, system functional and performance testing of the Meteorological Mobile Station.
They also signed on-site acceptance certificate with Department of Meteorological Services, including providing a series of materials such as system operation and maintenance Manual, cable and network list, system critical
design and operating videos for Botswana users.
Accepting the system, the PS, Grace Muzila emphasised its importance on early warning preparedness and response capabilities especially in relation to climate change challenges that Botswana face.
Muzila noted that as an earth observing system, the TGAS will be used for detection, observation, and monitoring of extreme weather events. The system will be fully utilised to monitor drought, fire point detection, land
surface temperature monitoring as well as aerosol monitoring.
“Today the growing impacts of climate change are making earth observations, research and services more critical than ever. Climate change has exacerbated the intensity and frequency of events such as heavy rainfalls, heat waves, droughts, winter storms, and freezing temperatures which have become destructive, leading to loss of lives and property in some areas”.
In Botswana, for example, frequent droughts are exacerbating water scarcity and thereby negatively impacting people’s health and productivity. The entire ecosystems are dependent on the availability of water.
Muzila said that recognising the water cycle as a bio-physical process is essential to achieving sustainable water management. Likewise, ensuring that everyone has access to sustainable water and sanitation services is a critical climate change mitigation strategy for the years ahead, she said.
With the challenges posed by climate change it becomes critically important for DMS to meet the ever changing needs of stakeholders who demand quality weather and climate information. For his part, Ambassador Wang Xuefeng highlighted that China has been acting through concrete actions on President Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Civilisation, and has made important contributions to global climate governance.
According to Ambassador Wang, eight years ago, President Xi Jinping worked with leaders of other countries to reach the Paris Agreement (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the utmost political determination and wisdom, and embarked on a new journey of global cooperation to address climate change.
In 2020, China made the official announcement that it will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
“This is a much shorter time span than what might be taken by many developed countries, and that requires extraordinarily hard efforts from China”, the Chinese Envoy noted.
In 2022, China’s emission intensity of carbon dioxide decreased by more than 51 percent from 2005. China has completely stopped building coal-powered plants abroad, currently 50 percent of the world’s wind power
equipment and 80 percent of the Photovoltaic equipment are from China.
As the world’s largest developing country and a responsible country, China has always been an active advocate and practical practitioner of South-South cooperation on climate change.
“As of now, China has signed 48 cooperation agreements with 40 developing countries, providing cumulative support of over 1,2 billion RMB to developing countries and training nearly 2, 300 relevant personnel”, he said.
Ambassador Wang said that promoting green development is also one of the important areas of China-Africa cooperation. The green development programme is one of the ‘Nine Programmes’ that President Xi Jinping proposed at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2021.
This Meteorological Mobile Station is just “one of the fruits” of China-Botswana cooperation under the ‘nine programmes’, Ambassador Wang said.
