Using a political ecology framework, this article describes the main developmental challenges facing communities living within the Boteti River sub-basin of northwestern Botswana. The data derive primarily from household surveys conducted over several months in 2008. They show that residents within the study area face significant challenges from unstable supplies of potable water and a highly degraded physical landscape. The article suggests that new opportunities for improved livelihood security have arisen with the recent return of the river to a perennial condition. For more than two decades, only a small portion of the river has had significant surface flow, with the rest dry year round. Given the area's proximity to landscape-dependent, wildlife-based tourism activity, the article suggests that the shifting basin hydrology presents sport-for-development agents with numerous opportunities for meaningful development interventions. In elaborating on what Coalter calls ‘sport plus’ and’ plus sport activities', the article cautions that rural development undertaken in a context of abiding structural marginalisation is not for the faint of heart. Meaningful participation requires strategic intervention and long-term commitment of resources.