NICE, FRANCE – The Kingdom of Eswatini, though a land-linked nation, has a profound and moral connection to the world’s oceans, Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini told a global audience this week.
Speaking on behalf of His Majesty King Mswati III at the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference, the Prime Minister explained why the country’s participation was both deliberate and meaningful. He said the health of the ocean begins far from the coast, in the highlands and riverbanks of upstream nations like Eswatini.
“Our major rivers – the Komati, Mbuluzi, and Great Usuthu – do not terminate within our borders. They flow onward, eventually feeding into the Indian Ocean,” Dlamini stated at the conference, which runs from June 9 to 13 in Nice, France. “In this way, Eswatini is connected to the world’s oceans not only geographically, but ecologically and morally.”
The Prime Minister also tied the nation’s economic fortunes directly to the sea.
“As an export-driven market, our major commodities such as sugar and beef rely on maritime trade through the ports in our neighbouring countries,” he said. “As such, we are heavily invested in this conversation and the deliberations here.”
Dlamini relayed a consistent message from His Majesty King Mswati III to emaSwati: that tapping into the global blue economy through the kingdom’s own rivers and dams is essential to grow the economy and address food insecurity. For that to happen, he noted, “we need our oceans healthy.”
Calling for decisive global action over rhetoric, the Prime Minister warned that development disregarding the environment is both shortsighted and costly.
“Prioritising economic gains over ecological integrity causes damage – polluted rivers and degraded ecosystems – that requires greater resources to repair than to prevent,” he said.
He informed the UN member states of several interventions Eswatini has in place to protect the environment. These include legislative action against single-use plastics, scaling up organic and regenerative farming, and improving national waste management systems to control what enters the nation’s waterways. In his address, the Prime Minister voiced support for a global ban on plastics.
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