Gumare or Gomare is a rural village located in the North-West District of

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 ...

, near the

Okavango Delta The Okavango Delta (or Okavango Grassland; formerly spelled "Okovango" or "Okovanggo") in Botswana is a swampy inland delta formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough at an altitude of 930–1,000 m in the central part of the en ...

. The population of Gumare was 6,067 in 2001 census, but had risen to 8,532 iby the 2011 census. Gumare is served by Gumare Airport. Four separate government institutions manage Ngamiland District: # District Council; # District Administration; # Tribal Administration; # Land Board. Maun serves as the administrative center of Ngamiland. Gumare is the administrative headquarters for the Okavango Delta Subdistrict, which has its own set of administrative institutions. Okavango's administrative boundary starts at Habu, including Qangwa and Xaixai up to Gudigwa. Its political boundary starts from Etsha 1 up to Gudigwa and this is different from education and agriculture. There are twenty-seven villages in the Okavango Sub-district, although the 2011 census only enumerates six: Daonara, Ditshiping, Jao, Katamaga, Morutsha, and Xaxaba. Okavango is really only one part of the remarkable

Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...

ecosystem. Okavango is set within a geographically unstable area of faults and regularly experiences land movements,

tremor A tremor is an involuntary, somewhat rhythmic, muscle contraction and relaxation involving oscillations or twitching movements of one or more body parts. It is the most common of all involuntary movements and can affect the hands, arms, eyes, fa ...

s and quakes. Hence, its natural world with a landscape that is always changing and quite unpredictable. There are

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most a ...

lands,

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s, channels,

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'' ...

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natu ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

s and countless

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s of various shape and size. The predominant ethnic groups in the sub-district are Batawana, Bayei, Baherero and Bambukushu, and Basubiya. There are also the Banoka (River Bushman), Okavango's original inhabitants, and the Bakgalagadi and the Herero. Most groups form their settlements along the river, which they use for subsistence fishing and watering for livestock. They also plough the flood plains, growing maize and sorghum. The major economic activities in the Okavango include tourism (although the tourist companies are predominantly owned by foreign companies), livestock rearing, handicrafts and small scale industries, and some agriculture. The Okavango Sub-district is largely rural with a population that is heavily dependent on farming for their daily needs. In 1975 a United Nations Development Project assisted villagers in Gumare and Etsha to develop their

basket weaving Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...

skills into the renowned baskets from Botswana, an exportable product. Baskets and other small, high quality crafts were driven to Gaborone and exported from there to the United States and Europe for sale. Like other districts in Botswana, the Okavango is faced with a serious challenge of high prevalence of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

among the communities.

References

Populated places in Botswana North-West District (Botswana) {{Botswana-geo-stub