1 Natural Disasters and Development in Botswana: What can communities do to cushion themselves against the adverse effects of floods?

The global village is overwhelmed by various disasters. Tsunamis cause havoc for Asian countries while the hurricanes, lightening, cyclones and floods equally affect America, Europe, and African countries. These disasters coupled with other threats such as volcanic eruption, earthquakes continue to pose serious threats to the development of nations. This paper explores how communities in Botswana can be empowered to cushion themselves against the adverse effects of floods. Evidence from the authors ’ work in the area of disasters in Botswana as well as existing literature is used to support some of the arguments raised in this paper. The main argument of this paper is that communities in Botswana are less resilient to survive the effects of floods because they are not adequately empowered. The paper therefore highlights several ways in which communities could be made resilient to the effects of floods