For the first time in living memory, the Okavanga floods failed to reach the southern delta last year, where both animals and people depend on the waters. They are right to be concerned. Last year, for the first time this century, the annual floods which originate in Angola failed to make it to Maun, a booming village on the southern tip of the Okavango Delta.
People here depend on the delta water for their livelihood.
The tourism industry, now targeted to replace Botswana's ailing mineral sector, depends on the water to bring in the growing number of international visitors. More importantly, villagers need the river for washing, for fish and water lily roots and for reeds to build houses. In 1996 Maun's major river the Thamalakane, which is fed by the Boro, was bone dry. She moved to Maun in the 1940s from the Boteti area further south. Today the Boteti river is bone dry.