Okavango

	Okavango; Cubango, Okawango, Kavango
	In the Okavango Delta
	Data
location	Southern Africa : Angola Botswana Namibia; ; ;
River system	Okavango
Headwaters	Bié highlands in Angola ; 12 ° 42 ′ 41 ″ S , 16 ° 3 ′ 50 ″ E
Source height	1850 m
delta	Okavango Delta ( endorheic basin) coordinates: 18 ° 50 ′ 41 " S , 16 ° 3 ′ 50" E 18 ° 50 ′ 41 " S , 16 ° 3 ′ 50" E;
Mouth height	940 m (at the outlet of the delta)
Height difference	910 m
Bottom slope	0.49 ‰
length	1860 km (including delta to Maun)
Catchment area	413,550 km²
Left tributaries	Cutato, Cuchi, Cacuchi, Cuebe, Cuatir, Chissombo, Cuito
Right tributaries	Bale
	Map of the Okavango River Basin
	Confluence of the Cuito (from above) and ; Okavango (from left to right)

The Okavango, also known as Okawango, Cubango or Kavango , is a 1700-kilometer river in southern Africa .

River course

River system of the Okavango

The river rises as Cubango (also called Kubango ) in the center of Angola on the highlands of Bié and flows from there not to the ocean , but into the desert-like interior of Botswana, with no outflow .

It flows through the highlands south to the border with Namibia . From there it is called the Okavango in its middle reaches and forms the border between Angola and Namibia for about 400 kilometers. Nkurenkuru , the capital of the Kavango-West region, and Rundu , the capital of the Kavango-East region , are on the south bank of the river.

It crosses the elongated, narrow Caprivi Strip of Namibia. Shortly after Andara it forms the Popa Falls with its rapids . Immediately near Andara, he releases part of his water into a canal for a turbine hydropower plant, which was built in the 1980s as part of a project by the Working Group for Development Aid to supply a hospital. Then he reached northwestern Botswana. There the water of the river seeps into the swamps of the (above-ground) drainless Okavango basin in a 15,000 km² and swampy inland delta ( Okavango delta ), which lies in the northeast of the Kalahari ; the size of the delta swells up to 20,000 km² during the rainy season. Therein lies the Moremi Wildlife Reserve (Moremi Wildlife Reserve). In its middle reaches the Okavango is inhabited by crocodiles and hippos . The delta is known for its great biodiversity.

The Okavango gets practically all of its water from Angola. It is fed by a large number of tributaries, which mostly drain very narrow and long, closely spaced catchment areas. The longest tributary is the Cuito with around 920 kilometers .

Amount of water

Due to the lack of rain in winter, the water of the Kubango-Okavango and its tributaries usually only reaches its inland delta with a delay of several months, namely only when it is driven southwards in waves by the floods of the rainy season . Therefore it happens that the middle and lower reaches of the Okavango only flow as a stream , as a sparse trickle or - apart from the lakes that remain in its river basins - fall completely dry. When the rainy season sets in, the Okavango develops into a torrential stream that supplies its swampy delta with plenty of water. On an annual average, it delivers around 10 billion m³ of water into its inland delta without any drainage.

The flow rate was measured in m³ / s at the gauge in Mukwe just before the river merges into the delta (long-term mean since 1949/50).

River length

The length of the Okavango is usually given in reference works as 1,600 or 1,800 kilometers. Both can be regarded as correct: The difficulty in determining its length is the fact that the river in the above-mentioned basin and inland delta on the one hand divides into several river arms, which then end somewhere in the vast swamps . On the other hand, the lengths of these rivers depend heavily on the water supply of the Okavango, which is much more pronounced during the rainy season in summer than in winter with little rain. During the rainy season its water flows normally beyond the borders of this swamp out where he the Lake Ngami and the Boteti the Makgadikgadi Pans fed.

Catchment area

The information about the catchment area varies widely. This is due to the tax base. The total catchment area of the endorheic basin is 721,258 km²; the area that drains directly or indirectly into the Okavango, about 413,550 km² and the portion that actually drains water, about 171,000 km² (plus 15,844 km² delta).

gallery

Okavango Delta
Sign at the Okavango lower course
View over the water
In the delta
When it rains in the delta

literature

Peter Johnson, Anthony Bannister, Creina Bond: Okavango. Sea of Land, Land of Water. 8th edition. Struik, Cape Town 1988, ISBN 0-86977-086-1 .

Movies

Dereck and Beverly Joubert: Natural Wonders Okawango, three-part series, broadcast on Das Erste in May 2020

Web links

Commons : Okavango River - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Okavango Basin River Water Commission. (English).
Okavango pictorial documentation. ( Memento of July 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ).
Water Resources Atlas - Watersheds of Africa - A12 Okavango Basin. (PDF; 714 kB; English).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Okavango Basin - Hydrology.
↑ ^a ^b An overview of key strategic issues in the Okavango basin.
^ ^A ^b Okavango River Basin Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis. (PDF; 1 MB).
↑ https://www.daserste.de/information/reportage-dokumentation/erlebnis-erde/sendung/naturwunder-okawango-nahme-1-100.html

[Basin-1] Okavango Basin - Hydrology.

[Key-2] An overview of key strategic issues in the Okavango basin.

[Trans-3] A ^b Okavango River Basin Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis. (PDF; 1 MB).

[4] ttps://www.daserste.de/information/reportage-dokumentation/erlebnis-erde/sendung/naturwunder-okawango-nahme-1-100.html