Socioeconomics in the Basin

The Limpopo River basin has a relatively small population of 14 million inhabitants and is composed of four riparian states: Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe (Earle et al. 2006). The riparian countries of the Limpopo River basin exhibit considerable macro-economic variability, with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (PPP per-capita GDP) ranging from $ 9 in Zimbabwe (related to inflation), $ 938 in Mozambique, $ 9 961 in South Africa to $ 13 491 in Botswana (IMF 2009).

Chapter Summary

The variability in socioeconomic conditions of the basin population is examined in this chapter through the following concepts and material:

• the variability in the Distribution of Economic Activities
• by comparing the conditions of the Urban and Rural populations
• The variability in the socioeconomic conditions Upstream vs Downstream

Subsistence agriculture in the Oliphants River sub-basin, South Africa.

Source: Sitoe 2004

( click to enlarge )