Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa have excelled in a joint livestock sector project under the African Union.

Agriculture Minister Carl Schlettwein revealed this at the conclusion of official talks between the Presidents of Namibia and Botswana last week.

Under the project, all three countries make use of foot and mouth vaccines, produced in Botswana.

"This meeting has agreed that research and cooperation must be broadened, not only in utilising our capacities for vaccination production but also in research into animal diseases and different vaccine production processes. In fact, we have also broadened into production methods in agriculture, both crop and livestock, and both cattle and small stock. So we are very much adhering to the tasks that we were given by the AU. In fact, we believe that we are probably ahead of the curve for many and that our cooperation is progressing better than in many other parts of Africa. Namibia and Botswana are the only two countries that managed to have access to the best-paying markets. That's the EU, Norway, for our cattle market, and that is a result of our coordinated approaches between Botswana and Namibia to fight the foot and mouth disease."

Schletwein also told the media that the project to supply water to both Namibia and Botswana through a seawater desalination project is still on track and is broken up into three phases.

"That's the SS1, which Cabinet has approved, and for that project, the feasibility study has been done, funding has been secured, and hopefully we will start implementing in December. SS2 is the programme where we want to supply desalinated water to our central areas. We are still in the process of evaluating whether the provision of desalinated water is cost-effective in comparison to linking all our dams and providing water from other sources. What is still outstanding is the SS3 we have. That's the last phase, but it can also be a standalone programme. We have created a joint committee that is looking into the legal and jurisdictional aspects of how that infrastructure is actually going to be maintained and built."

The joint committee is due to report back at its next meeting, where further steps are to be discussed.