ABSTRACT
Gaborone differs from Accra and Harare in many ways. To begin with, it is almost an order of magnitude smaller — more like 100,000 than 1,000,000; and it has grown more than twice as rapidly — around 12% per annum compared to around 5%. But most importantly, it is a new city, one that has essentially been in existence for barely 30 years. Before Independence in 1966, when Botswana was the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, its capital was at Mafeking — in South Africa. Gaborone was constructed as the new capital of Botswana, with its site chosen mostly because of the availability of water. In Gaborone, as in the other cities in Botswana deemed large enough and dense enough to receive unsubsidized service, the storage, treatment, and distribution of drinking water have been undertaken by the parastatal Water Utilities Corporation since 1970.
