Ngamiland west more poor

15% below PDL in Okavango/Ngamiland 24 July, 2012

PARLIAMENT - According to the 1993/94 Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 15 per cent of the population in the Okavango/Ngamiland region is living below the Poverty Datum Line (PDL). The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration said when answering a parliamentary question on Thursday that the 2002/03 survey estimated 33.9 and 53.3 per cent of the population as living below the PDL in Ngamiland east and west respectively. Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi said the 2009/10 survey preliminary estimates showed that 27.9 and 47.3 per cent of the population were living below the PDL in Ngamiland east and west respectively. Mr Masisi noted that comparing the 2002/03 and 2009/10 estimates, indications were that the poverty incidence in Ngamiland east and west was progressively improving, suggesting that the region was positively recovering from the effects of the cattle eradication exercise. The MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone had asked the minister to state how the level of poverty was in Okavango/Ngamiland before and after the cattle eradication exercise of 1995. He had also wanted to know whether Ngamiland region had positively recovered from the effects of the eradication exercise. BOPA