Sufficient general socio-economic information is available from secondary data for the areas selected so the pilot project workplan proposed that two surveys should be undertaken during the preparatory phase which concentrated on:
current consumption patterns for fish in communities living around dams in order to provide indications as to the level of demand for, and attitudes towards consumption of, fish (referred to as Survey 1)
fishing activity around dams to identify the socio-economic characteristics of fishermen/women, identify supply routes and assess the current levels of fishing effort (referred to as Survey 2).
The original workplan also proposed that as part of the preparatory phase, case studies on fish-eating/fish-catching and non-fish eating/fish-catching households should be carried out. This component was postponed as the preliminary results of the surveys indicated that case studies at this stage in the Pilot Project would be premature and were considered of greater benefit once the pilot exploitation phase was in full operation.
Interview schedules were pre-tested and consequently revised. In addition, experiences gained from a similar ALCOM survey carried out in Lesotho, were incorporated into the design of the revised schedules. Answers were recorded in English but interviews were carried out in Setswana by trained enumerators. The interview schedules, in their final form, are attached as Appendix 1.
Seven dams and their associated communities (in Kweneng and Southern Districts) had been selected for the survey field work by the Pilot Project second formulation mission. These dams were selected because they were considered representative of the different dams that can be found in eastern Botswana: built for the primary purposes of supplying domestic water or for watering livestock. The criteria used for their selection are described in Appendix 1 of the Pilot Project Workplan. In this report, dams are referred to by their names and/or their numbers as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Selected Dams by District
| Dam | Village/Settlement | District | |
| 1. | Mmakgodumo | Kanye | Southern |
| 2. | Gampudi | Moshaneng/Kanye | Southern |
| 3. | Letlhakane | Letlhakane | Southern |
| 4. | Gakgatla | Gakgatla | Kweneng |
| 5. | Moshupa | Moshupa | Southern |
| 6. | Semarule | Semarule | Kweneng |
| 7. | Thaone | Molepolole | Kweneng |
For Survey 1, a total of 343 households were interviewed using a systematic sampling method by selecting every ‘n’th household, depending on the population around each dam. Table 2 shows the number of households interviewed at each dam.
Table 2: Survey 1: Number of Interviewed Households by Dam
| Dam | Number of Households | % of Total | ||
| 1. | Mmakgodumo | 98 | 29% | |
| 2. | Gampudi | 9 | 3% | |
| 3. | Letlhakane | 31 | 9% | |
| 4. | Gakgatla | 15 | 4% | |
| 5. | Moshupa | 73 | 21% | |
| 6. | Semarule | 27 | 8% | |
| 7. | Thaone | 90 | 26% | |
| TOTAL | 343 | 100% | ||
Sample size was based on 1981 Population Census figures and the guidelines given in the Pilot Project workplan, but other practical factors also influenced the sample size. At dams where the population is relatively very small (Numbers 2,4,6), selection of a sample would have been too small to be representative, so all occupied houses were interviewed. Finally, because the time available did not allow return visits to be made, the sample selection was biased in favour of those households who had somebody at home available for interview. A full description of how sample size was selected is described in Appendix 2.
For Survey 2, no sample size could be selected because no information was available on the total fishing population in the area. All fishermen/women were interviewed during visits to the dams, and when a member of a household selected for Survey 1 caught fish, they were also interviewed, where possible. In total, 37 fishermen were interviewed. In this report, the term fishermen, refers to both men and women.
Prior to implementation of the survey, government and local authorities at all the selected sites were visited to obtain permission to carry out the survey and to request them to inform the households living within their jurisdiction. At the main villages of Kanye and Molepolole, the District Agricultural Officers were visited; at Moshupa, the District Agricultural Supervisor; at Gakgatla, the Headman and the Agricultural Demonstrator; and at Letlhakane the Agricultural Demonstrator. Although Semarule is a lands area and therefore falls under the jurisdiction of Molepolole, the chairman of the dam group was approached in order to inform him of the purpose of the survey, prior to implementation. The people visited were entrusted with informing the local authorities (i.e. headmen) of the purposes of the survey and the likely days the survey team would visit the area.
