The development of a low-cost sanitation system suitable for Botswana

Recent studies have revealed that Botswana has probably the highest urban growth rate in Africa and although its four towns are relatively small, their annual population increase in percentage terms is extraordinary. It is estimated, for example, that Gaborone the capital could well grow from its present 33,000 to more than 130,000 by 1985; a fourfold increase within the next decade.

The majority of these extra people will be low-income families, all of whom will need homes and the Government is alive to the need to secure their settlement in a planned manner, if we are to avoid a serious squatter situation, in site and service housing areas. The key to successful urban growth in the context of a developing country is a system of domestic sanitation which is inexpensive, efficient in operation, hygienic and socially acceptable and it is for this reason that the Government has authorised a wide-reaching research study.into low-cost sanitation to be carried out by my Ministry in conjunction with the Ministries of Health and Works and Communications and with the assistance of the International Development Research Centre of Canada.

I welcome this project and hope that the study and its findings will be of lasting benefit to Botswana and to other countries with similar problems.

Foreword by the Hon. L. Makgekgenene Minister of Local Government & Lands Republic of Botswana