The North West (NW) Province, one of the nine provinces of the Republic of South Africa, was established in 1994 and comprises the western portion of the former Transvaal province, and Bophuthatswana (a former homeland created by the pre-1994 government).
The province is situated at the centre of the northern border of South Africa, and shares borders with Botswana to the north and four of the other South African provinces: the Northern Cape Province to the south-west, the Free State to the south, the Gauteng Province to the south-east, and the Limpopo Province to the east and north-east.
The province covers 106,511 km2 or approximately 9% of the total surface area of South Africa (Municipal Demarcation Board, 2008). NW Province was created together with five district municipalities. The municipalities were originally named after their geographic location as the Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, and Central districts. The NW provincial and municipal boundaries were amended in 2006 resulting in the western portion of the NW Province being reallocated to the Northern Cape Province and two portions of the Gauteng Province being reallocated to the NW Province. Furthermore, the Eastern and Central districts were merged into a single municipality the Bojanala District Municipality, and the Western district was renamed the Bophirima District Municipality. The culmination of this process was the creation of four new district municipalities within the provincial boundaries of the NW Province.

During the course of 2008, the districts were renamed to:

• Ngaka Modiri Molema district
• Dr. Kenneth Kaunda district
• Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district
• Bojanala Platinum district

The four district municipalities are divided into 21 local municipalities.
The City of Mafikeng serves as the provincial capital of the NW Province. Other significant towns are Brits, Klerksdorp, Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom, Rustenburg and Vryburg.The significant towns of the NW Province were originally agricultural centres, which later evolved into mining centres.

The province enjoys a continental climate characterised by a high variance between minimum and maximum temperatures. According to the South African Weather Services (2008), the daily maximum temperatures range from 17 to 31 Degrees Celcius in the summer and from 4 to 20 Degrees Celsius in the winter. The highest ever recorded temperature is 40 Degress Celsius in the months of December and January. The lowest ever recorded temperature is -6 Degrees Celsius in the months June and July.

Annual rainfall totals approximately 539 mm, with the highest rainfall during the summer months between October and April (an average of 117 mm in January). Precipitation is very low in the winter months with an average of 3 mm falling in July. The highest recorded 24 hour rainfall is 99 mm in the month of March.   Due to the low precipitation levels, the province is considered to be an arid region. A large percentage of precipitation occurs as thunderstorms, which are associated with events such as heavy gusts of wind, lightning, hail and flash-floods.

Water drains through three primary river catchment systems: The Vaal in the south, Molopo in the west and Crocodile and Marico in the east. The majority of rivers are non-perennial, flowing with seasonal rainfall. The main perennial rivers are the Crocodile (West), Groot Marico, Hex, Elands, Vaal, Mooi, Harts and Molopo rivers. Larger rivers are concentrated in the wetter eastern and southern portions of the province, with the Crocodile, Hex, Elands, Mooi, Vaal and Harts Rivers occurring in these regions. The Molopo River is the only major river occurring in the drier north-western portion of the province. Other important surface water features are dams, pans, wetlands and dolomitic eyes fed by aquifers. The runoff as percentage of precipitation in the province on average is 6%, lower than the national average of 9%. This varies considerably from less than 1% in the west to 7% in the east of the province.

The province has large underground water reserves in the form of fractured aquifers and dolomitic compartments (NWPTB, 2008). The general semi-arid conditions of the province have resulted in a high demand for groundwater. The aquifers are however recharged slowly at an average recharge rate of less than ten millimetres per year in the western region and 300 mm per annum in the eastern regions.

(General information sourced from www.nwpg.gov.za)