The Tati River is a river in northeast

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

, a tributary of the

Shashe River The Shashe River (or Shashi River) is a major left-bank tributary of the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe. It rises northwest of Francistown, Botswana and flows into the Limpopo River where Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa meet.Limpopo River The Limpopo River rises in South Africa and flows generally eastward through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a group of Tsonga settlers led by Hosi Rivombo who settled in the mountaino ...

. The river flows through

Francistown Francistown is the second largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 103,417 and 147,122 inhabitants for its agglomeration at the 2022 census. and often described as the "''Capital of the North''" or as the natives would have it “''T ...

, where it is joined by the Ntshe (or Inchwe) River from the left.

History

About 1865 a hunter came across traces of old gold diggings near the Tati. He invited Karl Mauch to accompany him on his next trip, and in 1866 Mauch announced that he had found the

Tati goldfields The Tati Goldfields are a mineral-rich band in Botswana and Zimbabwe in southern Africa. The band runs approximately long by wide, and crosses the Tati River. It is the southernmost of the gold-bearing bands in the Archaen greenstone (schist) be ...

extending about which started the first gold rush in Southern Africa the following year. In 1869 the Englishman Daniel Francis came to hunt for gold on the river, before heading south to the Kimberley diamond fields in 1870. The gold was hard to extract, and the gold rush died down. Francis returned in 1880 and obtained mining rights from King Lobengula. Mining activity revived in the 1880s and 1890s, and Francistown was established in 1897 when the railway arrived. The town was named after Francis, who owned most of the land in the area.

Use

The sandy bed of the Tati river holds water only for a few days in each year, as is common with rivers in Botswana. The river feeds the

Ntimbale Dam The Ntimbale Dam is a dam on the Tati River in Botswana. It has a capacity of . Construction The dam project was assigned to Knight Piésold by the Botswana Department of Water Affairs. Knight Piésold undertook the Feasibility study in 1996– ...

, with a storage capacity of . The dam, commissioned in 2008, supplies water to villages throughout the North East District. Lower down the river supplies the

Dikgatlhong Dam The Dikgatlhong Dam is a dam near the village of Robelela on the Shashe River in Botswana, completed in December 2011. When full it will hold . The next largest dam in Botswana, the Gaborone Dam, has capacity of . Purpose The dam is located on t ...

. The water has become polluted from industrial and human waste, and there is a risk of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

if the water is used untreated. During the extended dry season, the river loses its surface water, although water may remain in the sand bed. Mining of this sand has caused the water table to drop, and may also contribute to flooding.

References

Citations Sources * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Rivers of Botswana