***The Okavango area of Botswana is the world's largest island delta, a unique and beautiful wildlife and water ecosystem. Now there are plans to dam, divert and drain the Boro River within the delta to provide water far the Orapa diamond mine — and increase grazing land for Botswana's powerful cattle barons. Gemini News Service reports on the scheme which is causing unaccustomed protest within Botswana and threatens an international campaign to stop it by Damien Lewis

THE issue of whether to dam the Boro River In Botswana's unique, world-famous Okavango Delta, is developing into a major ■ political row It has even provoked a threat of secession, since withdrawn and Is being watched internationally

On one side of this dispute are the Botswana govern nx nt and its advisers, along with business Int.-rests: on the other are the people of the district tourist Interests and conservationists — the last two for once tn the same camp.

The dispute has a developing International flavour Greenpeace for example, was invited by the Botswana gov ernment to report on 0k pro Ject. known as the Southern Okavango Integrated Water Devefopment Project (SOIWD) Around the world »nscrva-Uon environment and wildlife groups arc following the e bate anxiously

At stake la a world renowned della eiosyv-m which supports a delicate.v balanced thriving interrnii gling of human. fauna and Ikira populatXins

The delta is formed by Um Okavango River which flows south from Angola, then fans out to drain Its waters into the Kalahari desert in north west Botswana The resulting swampy matrix of channels and pools Is Africa s largest "oasis'. and one of the world s most famous wetlands and di ver-a- habitats for wildlife

A' present.Okavmigoha.no status Within the Jebs there is but one small gaws reserve

The purpose of SOIWD is threefold: to irrigate 10.000 sq km of land, provide a water supply for the town of Maun and increase the water supply to the Orapa diamond mine

The first two objectives in volve raising the outflow of the della by dredging 42 kilometres of the Boro River and building a series of dams along the delta s southern fringe

The Orapa diamond rretH — one of the world s richest — currently uses about five mil lion cubic metres of wat r a ye ar This demand will have do-1 tiled by 2000 and may be as high as 12mcm a year by 2004

The mt Mt enthusiastic ex portent of SOIWD Is the Botswana government, fol towed by the Australian projet I ixinsullants. Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation Ilic Corporation has admitted that it has limited understanding of the Okavango and Is not able fully to predict the effects of draining the delta

The German aid agency KFW which funds various wa ter projects tn Botswana has withdrawn Us funding, so uneasy is it with the plans

Greenpeace's report calls for the project to be abandoned and recommends that the delta be nominated a pro levied site under the World Heritage and Ramsar Conventions.

Orapa. a Joint venture between De Beers of South Africa and the Botswana government has said It does not need water from Okavango since it has ac cess to adequate underground supplies The rub is that tapping the underground water and treating it for use. is ex pensive

Dxal people have repeat edly expressed opposition to the scheme They feel It Is wrong to interfere with a complex living system that no one understands, and they have seen previous drainage projects fall, at the expense of wildlife and their livelihood

At a recent meeting 1n Maun they asked: "What will happen to us if the water dies? If the work goes ahead there will be a war here

At a protest meeting in Makaiamedt in early may they confronted tbe President. Dr Quett Mas ire who told them

the scheme would not be stopped "by a handful of people."

The water development scheme will directly affect only some 250 sq km. Just one per cent of Okavango, but critics believe it may have much wider effects on the delta's ecosystem.

The delta fluctuates between a maximum area of 22.000 sq km in wet years to a minimum of 16.000 In dry times Its gradient ts very shal low (1:3,300). giving rise to a complex and dynamic system of flow and flooding.

Frequent earth movements, changes tn climate and vegeta tion growth — even the actlvl ties of hippos — all contribute to the ebb and flow of the delta.This complexity is re fleeted In the diversity of species there — 450 bird species. 20 species of large herbivores fever 140.000 anl ma Is) and an estimated bto mass of 240.000 tonnes of fish

During the dry season vast numbers of animals move In from the Kalahari swelling the

population to about 10 times Its wet season size.

Greenpeace maintains that the Australian consultants used Inaccurate and Insufficient daUi in their planning. Dredging the Boro River would, they say cause a general drying of the delta and reduce permanent waler levels. This would alter l be vegetation and displace wildlife, including rare and endangered species

The proposed benefits of 3OIWD are also questioned by Greenpeace. Local water demand. they say. could be met by reservoirs, and no dredging or draining would be neces sary In addition. the irrigation potential, once assessed at 10.000 hectares, is actually less than 1.300 ha and would need high-technology Input.

A dredging of the Boro in 1972 failed to Increase the water supply to Orapa Damming of the Nhabe River as part of the scheme resulted in the drying up of Lake Nhabe. a wildlife haven

This is the example that local Batawana use in their exhortations to the government and Greenpeace have threat ened a campaign Diamonds are for Death."

Currently there is a stay of execution for Okavango as the debate continues. but President Mast re s remarks do not bode well for those who oppose the scheme.

Greenpeace spokesperson Alison Ross says there to no review of the project there Is a re-consultlng of people on the ground but no examination

of environment-friendly op lions.

However, there ts anol her lobby pushing for the scheme to continue — that of Botswana a powerful cattle barons

Beef is the second—biggest export earner for Botswana (although It la small compared with earnings from diamonds) Six per cent of the people own 70 per cent of the national herd

Cattle interests have tong been identified with the erection of 3.000 km of fences

across Botswana — ostensibly to guard against foot and mouth disease carried by wiki animals, though that is hotly disputed by some experts

The fences have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of plains animals trekking to wa ler In limes of drought, and finding their way blocked by the fences In some areas the great plains herds, of zebra and wildebeest for example, once the second greatest con centrations In Africa, have all but disappeared.

Draining Okavango would

release large amounts of land for ranching and boost beef exports to the European Community.

Local Okavango residents believe the water development scheme will devastate their small-scale agriculture and threaten the livelihood that comes from he 30,000 tourists who visit the delta each year

Greenpeace is seeking World Heritage nomination for the area so that It can remain the Jewel of the Kalahari" for

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