Maputo (river)

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Maputo
Suthu, Usutu, Great Usutu, Lusutfu, Rio Maputo
The catchment area of ​​the Maputo

The catchment area of ​​the Maputo

Data
location South AfricaSouth Africa South Africa Swaziland Mozambique
SwazilandSwaziland 
MozambiqueMozambique 
River system Maputo
Source height approx.  1680  m
muzzle Indian Ocean Coordinates: 26 ° 11 ′ 13 ″  S , 32 ° 41 ′ 17 ″  E, 26 ° 11 ′ 13 ″  S , 32 ° 41 ′ 17 ″  E
Mouth height 0  m
Height difference approx. 1680 m
Bottom slope approx. 4.8 ‰
length 347 km
Catchment area 29,970 km²
Outflow
A Eo : 29,970 km²
at the mouth 		MQ
Mq
 		120 m³ / s
4 l / (s km²)
Left tributaries Umpilusi, Lusushwana (Little Usutu), Mtsindzekwa (Mtendekwa), Nyetane
Right tributaries Ngwempisi , Nkondo (Mkhondo), Mhlathuzane, Mhlatuze, Pongola
Reservoirs flowed through Westoe Dam
Small towns Luyengo , Sidvokodvo , Siphofaneni, Big Bend , Catuane, Salamanga, Bela Vista
Navigable Lower course
The Maputo in Mozambique

The Maputo in Mozambique

The Maputo (also Suthu , Usutu , Great Usutu , Lusutfu or Rio Maputo ) is a river in South Africa , Eswatini and Mozambique . It is around 350 kilometers long and flows into the Indian Ocean .

Suthu / Great Usutu / Lusutfu and the southern Pongola are sometimes considered to be the source rivers of the Maputo.

geography

Its source is in Mpumalanga , in the far eastern stepland of the Drakensberg ( Drakensberg Escarpment ) between Ermelo and Amsterdam . The Vaal rises a little to the west , but it flows into the Oranje . The source of the Suthu is at an altitude of about 1680 meters above sea level. The local river name Suthu is said to refer to the Basotho who used to live there or to mean "dark brown river". Which is in the upper reaches in Amsterdam Dam Westoe Dam. Their water is used, among other things, for cooling in coal-fired power stations further west.

The river flows eastwards to Eswatini, where it is mostly referred to as Lusutfu or Great Usutu. It is the longest river in the country and divides the country into two roughly equal parts. Through the Lubowane Feeder Canal , water from the Lusutfu flows into the dam of the tributary Mhlathuzane. The river water is used, among other things, for a pulp factory. In the further course of the Lusutfu passes the city of Big Bend , which is named after a meander of the river. At 21 meters above sea level, Eswatini's lowest point is on Lusutfu. It flows further in an easterly direction through a 13 km long gorge in the Lebombo Mountains , where it is also the border river between South Africa and Eswatini. It then forms the state border between South Africa and Mozambique for 20 kilometers .

The largest tributary of the Lusutfu, the Pongola, flows into the eastern end of this section. There is the Ndumo Game Reserve on the south bank . Finally, the river flows as “Maputo” for a further 80 kilometers in a north-easterly, then north-east direction to the south of Maputo Bay , where it flows as an estuary into the Indian Ocean at Bela Vista . The Maputo is navigable from the Pongola estuary. To the east of the lower reaches is the Maputo Elephant Reserve.

Catchment area

The catchment area of ​​the Maputo extends over three countries. Mozambique has the smallest share with 5% of the area (1,630 km²). South Africa covers the largest part with 56% (16,744 km²). The remaining 39% (11,597 km²) are in Eswatini.

contracts

The catchment area of ​​the Maputo is very water-rich and is therefore of great importance in the three neighboring countries for their water requirements. This led to the signing of a trilateral agreement in Pretoria on February 17, 1983 , on the basis of which a working body for the coordination and supervision of the common water use was created. Since then, this task has been carried out by the Tripartite Permanent Technical Committee , abbreviated TPTC (German: Standing Trilateral Technical Commission). The Incomati and Maputo Agreement of 2002 put this agreement and its practice on an updated basis.

division

The catchment area can be divided into nine sub-catchment areas. These are divided as follows:

flow EZG [km²] Area Mozambique [km²] Area South Africa [km²] Area Eswatini [km²] Discharge [m³ / s]
Lusushwana 1,390 264 1,126 13
Mpuluzi 1,870 1,590 281 8th
Usuthu 5,970 60 955 4,955 19th
Ngwempisi 3,570 2,071 1,499 16
Mkhondvo 3,890 2,529 1,362 18th
Ngwavuma 2.130 234 1,896 6th
Pongola 9,580 9.101 479 37
Maputo 1,570 1,570 3
Maputo as a whole 29,970 1,630 16,744 11,597 120

Others

The Maputo river gave its name to the renaming of the Mozambican city Lourenço Marques in Maputo . However, it is about 20 kilometers north of the river, on the other side of Maputo Bay.

The Usutu virus is named after the river Usutu .

Web links

Commons : Maputo river  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Global Composite Runoff Fieldson Observed River Dischargeand Simulated Water Balances
  2. ↑ a b c d Managing Freshwater Ecosystems of International Water Resources - The Case of the Maputo River in Mozambique
  3. ↑ a b c d Maputo River at britannica.com (English), accessed September 29, 2014
  4. ^ GR von Willig: Langs die Lebombo. JL van Schaik, Pretoria 1925, pp. 175, 217.
  5. ^ PE Raper: South African place names. Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg / Cape Town 2004, ISBN 1-86842-190-2 .
  6. ↑ Description of the river ( Memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  7. ^ Estudo Conjunto da Bacia do Rio Maputo. Joint Maputo River Basin Study (JMRBS) . on www.dwaf.gov.za (Portuguese, English)
  8. ^ Tripartite Interim Agreement for Co-Operation on the Protection and Substainable Utilization of the Water Resources of the Incomati and Maputo Watercourses . S. 59. on www.dwaf.gov.za (English)