Poor housing is also a problem in Botswana, especially in such mining towns as Orapa and Selebi-Pikwe, where the poor live in overcrowded villages. The government is seeking ways to reduce unemployment and improve housing. Land and climate. The land is hilly in the east and flat or gently rolling elsewhere. Eastern Botswana has the most fertile land, and about 80 percent of the people live there.
Forests cover parts of the north.
The Kalahari Desert occupies almost all the central and southwest areas of the country. Bushes and grass grow in most of the Kalahari, but the southwest has sand dunes and little plant life. The Okavango River rises in Angola and flows into northwestern Botswana. There, the river divides into streams and forms the Okavango Swamps, a vast marshland. Botswana has a dry, subtropical climate.