Special Series (Part 3): Botswana's Limited Coal Transportation Options

Editor's Note: The following is the third installment of a series assessing the infrastructure required for southern Africa — South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana — to capitalize on its coal production potential. 

Like South Africa and Mozambique, Botswana has massive amounts of estimated coal reserves. Located primarily in the country's Central District, these reserves total approximately 210 billion tons, giving Botswana a potential export capacity of 80 million tons per year.

But unlike the other countries surveyed in this series, Botswana is landlocked. Without direct access to the sea, any route to bring Botswanan coal to port must traverse at least one other country. While there is no short-term solution to Botswana's transportation infrastructure problem, the government in Gaborone has a few options to improve infrastructure in the long term. But every option is fraught with drawbacks; they are expensive and time-consuming and could therefore complicate foreign investment.