The Boteti River is an ephemeral outflow of the Okavango River. It lies in a remote corner of Botswana where about 25,000 people eke out a difficult existence across a number of widely scattered villages and informal settlements. The river, with its seasonal streams and pans and more or less easily accessible groundwater, is vital to the livelihoods of these people, their livestock, and the wildlife that share this physical space. A combination of factors have led to widespread degradation of the physical resource base â" both in the river bed itself and in the wider environment. As part of its outreach role, the Okavango Research Centre has undertaken an action-oriented research project in the Boteti to assist people there with the rehabilitation of their resource base. This project is part of a three-country partnership wherein the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia and the Surplus Peoples Project of South Africa are undertaking similar activities in the Fish River (Namibia) and the Buffels River (South Africa). Underpinning this project is the basic assumption that for integrated water resources management (IWRM) to be successful, subsidiarity â" i.e. effective management by and for primary users of the resource base â" is essential. This assumption is not simply a âfactâ. It reflects the general consensus that exists among highly empowered national and transnational actors about the ways and means toward âequitable, efficient and sustainableâ use of water resources. For Tony Allan (2001), âIWRMâ constitutes the late modern âfifth paradigmâ regarding effective water management. Numerous global (e.g. World Water Forum) and regional (e.g. EU) forums have been constituted in the effort to work out effective ways and means of averting what is called an impending âworld water crisisâ. Various decision support tools have been developed; capacity building networks have been established; funding mechanisms have been put in place; competing national and global forums have been set up; and an endless array of websites and listserves have been created. In other words, there is now a vast global communications network in place to facilitate IWRM. Where does that leave the people of the Boteti River Basin? As activist academics, we function as a nodal point in this local/global communication network. We are the bearers of ideas and ideologies. We navigate between extreme environments â" from the village kgotla (communal gathering) to the expert-led international workshop; from dusty and disorganised District Council offices where the most reliable form of communication is the telephone, to donor conference offices with all of the latest technology at your fingertips. We speak to and for local people and we speak to governments, NGOs, IGOs and donor agencies. Whereas we are interested in facilitating IWRM, this is more akin to a religious belief than the application of scientific method to a readily amenable problem.This paper articulates the various ways in which the attempt to implement IWRM in a remote African river basin is made more difficult by a vast communication divide, and the methodologies of communication brought to bear in an effort to achieve what we believe to be important ends. This divide takes many forms. For instance, many people in the basin are illiterate, so affecting outreach strategies: how do you disseminate knowledge when only a few people can read? There are also cultural barriers to communication: graphs and tables and maps are unconvincing to people who would rather âsee for themselvesâ. Technological barriers are also significant, particularly where there is no electricity... ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]