Keiskamma River

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Keiskamma River
Keiskammarivier
The Keiskamma emerges from the Amathole Mountains around Fort Cox (center background) and Burnshill into a flat valley near Middledrift (left, beyond the edge of the picture)

The Keiskamma emerges from the Amathole Mountains around Fort Cox (center background) and Burnshill into a flat valley near Middledrift (left, beyond the edge of the picture)

Data
location Eastern Cape Province , South Africa
River system Keiskamma River
muzzle Indian Ocean near Hamburg Coordinates: 33 ° 16 ′ 47 "  S , 27 ° 29 ′ 11"  E 33 ° 16 ′ 47 "  S , 27 ° 29 ′ 11"  E

length 263 km
Catchment area 2745 km²
Map of the boundary structures in the first half of the 19th century

The Keiskamma ( English Keiskamma River , African Keiskammarivier) is a river in the South African province of Eastern Cape . It is about 263 kilometers long and has a catchment area of 2,745 square kilometers. It rises on the southwest flank of Mount Thomas and not far from the Dontsa Pass in the Amathole Mountains . Its mouth is located near Hamburg on the Indian Ocean .

course

In its upper course, north of the village Keiskammahoek , it is fed by several smaller watercourses. These are the small rivers uMnyamana, Cata, Nxalawa, Nqolo, Ndlovini and Gwiligwili. Three water dams in the catchment area of ​​its upper course serve to supply drinking water for the immediate and wider region. These are the Mnyameni Dam on uMnyamana, the Cata Dam in the Cata watercourse and the Sandili Dam at the confluence of the Wolf River with the Keiskamma River. The water production and treatment is carried out by the state company Amatola Water .

Its headwaters and upper catchment area are mainly characterized by Paleozoic rocks. These are sandstones , slate and gray silt-like rocks of the Balfour Formation within the Beaufort Group . As far as the vicinity of the settlement Burnshill, the Keiskamma flows through the area of ​​the Amathole Mountains which sinks to the south. A few kilometers downstream, at Middledrift, its course crosses a wide flat plain, in which it takes up the Tyhume River south of this village . In the gently undulating landscape near Middledrift and downstream in the middle reaches only silt rocks and sandstones predominate, both from the Middleton Formation of the Upper Permian . Here is another water reservoir , the Debe Dam , in its right tributary, the Debe, between the Willmerton railway station and the Newtown settlement .

Here the Keiskamma forms an important source of water in the eastern Karoo ecosystem .

In the lower reaches of the Keiskamma winds through a landscape that is characterized by scrub-like vegetation forms and is more strongly cut in numerous places by its course. This region is only very sparsely populated. In the area of ​​the mouth, the relief of the terrain flattens out somewhat and it flows into the Indian Ocean without a delta, but with a large bend and a considerable sandbank . Here are largely deserted sandy beaches.

Types of use in the catchment area

Around 11 percent of its catchment area is used as agricultural land by small farms and forestry. Only 5 percent is populated land and 27 percent consists of land that is threatened by erosion . The main part of its catchment area consists of areas that have only been slightly changed by man, consisting of savannah-like grassland, scrubland with shrubs and trees as well as extensive forest areas in the mountains.

history

The Keiskamma River was the boundary between the Victoria District of Cape Colony and the area of British Kaffraria in the 19th century . After the Second Border War , the river and the Tyhume River formed the eastern border of a neutral area on the basis of an agreement between the British and the Xhosa . Not far from Middledrift was Fort Cox in a bend in the river .

literature

  • Geological map of South Africa 1: 250.000, Sheet 3226 King William's Town
  • 3226 King William's Town, 1: 250,000, topo-cadastral, Mowbray (Chief Director of Surveys and Mapping Privat Bag Mowbray) 1985

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