2009-08-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

Blog 1 - Sowa Town (revised 16/04/2011)

This airphoto is of Sowa Town in 2005 and from Google Earth - a marvellous tool for planners! The township is like a desert flower in bloom - a few petals out and a few more to come around the point where the modern kgotla with council chambers and Choppers, town park, clinic etc. A plan from 1991 coming true.
There is a good reason for me to start with the Sowa Town project - the town has looked like on the photo above (from Sept 2005) for 10 yrs. It stopped growing!
This is sad and as a planner I feel the need to explain that fact. By reasons completely unnecessary, it became a "camp" - a sleeping place for workers and not a complete town for families and children.

This sad situation can, however, be changed and my presentation now might have some effect. I'm nursing a hope for that and the presentation that you can click on a bit down might be useful for the longevity of Sowa Town and the many millions that it has cost to design and build.

Consequently, I find this a good and relevant start for my blog on planning and I have downloaded a brief history from the planning years and start of another new town in Botswana.

The document you can open is actually in to parts: History and Planning. Some repetitons are there in the Planning chapter and will be edited away by time. For the moment I have no time, hope you understand!

Click HERE to read about History and Planning of Sowa Town.

Blog 2 - The Traditional Tswana Village
Background to the Sowa design concept requested by readers

Click HERE

Town Planning in Botswana