Oropuche River

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Oropuche River
Data
location Trinidad and Tobago
River system Oropuche River
source In the Northern Range north of Sangre Grande
10 ° 42 ′ 37 "  N , 61 ° 11 ′ 14"  W
muzzle At Genda in the Atlantic Ocean Coordinates: 10 ° 42 '43 "  N , 61 ° 11' 12"  W 10 ° 42 '43 "  N , 61 ° 11' 12"  W.
Mouth height 0  m

length 35 km
Right tributaries Quare River, Cunapo River

The Oropuche River , also called the Oropouche River and also called the North Oropuche River , as opposed to the South Oropouche River , is a river on Trinidad in Trinidad and Tobago .

etymology

The name Oropouche or Oropuche goes back to the indigenous people of Trinidad, depending on the region, the Caribs or the Arawak . The more peaceful Arawak inhabited the majority of the island at the time of the "discovery" by the Spaniards, the more warlike Caribs the northeast; From whose vocabulary the term “Oropuche” or “Oropouche” originates is no longer comprehensible today. The river should not be confused with the South Oropouche River, which runs through Penal-Debe and Siparia in southwest Trinidad and drains into the Gulf of Paria .

course

The Oropuche River runs entirely in the Sangre Grande region of northeast Trinidad. It rises one kilometer north of the Hollis Reservoir , the oldest reservoir in Trinidad, in the mountains of the Northern Range . First it flows a few kilometers to the east, where it passes the touristically developed Cumaca Cave. Then it turns south east of Cumaca to flow down through a valley towards the Caroni Plain . In the lowlands, the Oropuche River runs in a south-easterly direction, forming the eastern boundary of the Valencia Wildlife Sanctuary and Forest Reserve. Northeast of Sangre Grande it joins the Quare River and then two kilometers further southeast with the Cunapo River. The river then continues in an east-northeast direction and flows into Matura Bay near the village of Genda , which opens to the Atlantic .

Flora and fauna

As one of the few rivers in Trinidad, the Oropuche River is home to aquatic plants in its northern upper reaches: Spawning herbs have settled near Cumaca . The lower reaches flows through the 850-acre North Oropouche wetland, which is protected by the Ramsar Convention and includes a. is home to numerous birds. In 1926, in the Cumaca Cave located on the upper reaches, the Heptapteridae species Rhamdia quelen urichi , a blind fish that feeds on the excrement of the fat swallows living in the cave , was discovered.

Economic use

On the upper reaches of the Oropuche River there is a water treatment plant owned by the state Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), which extracts drinking water for the Sangre Grande and Arima regions . The water treatment is supported by the occurrence of calcium carbonate in the river bed, which act as natural filters. Until the middle of the 20th century, the area around the lower reaches of the Oropuche River was used for the cultivation of rice and was one of the most important cultivation areas of the former British colony. Sustainable salinization of the river brought rice cultivation to a standstill.

history

In 1955, Oropouche fever was named after the river after the virus that caused it was isolated from a forest worker in the region.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ PanTrinbago.com: The Amerindians of Trinidad & Tobago. Retrieved June 8, 2018 .
  2. Jump up ↑ JS Kenny: The Biological Diversity of Trinidad and Tobago: A Naturalist's Notes . Prospect Press, Port of Spain 2008, ISBN 978-976-95082-3-1 , pp. 29 .
  3. ↑ RAMSAR.org: Preliminary List of Wetland sites. Retrieved June 8, 2018 . (PDF, 68 KB)
  4. ^ Aldemaro Romero: The biology of hypogean fishes . Springer Science + Business Media, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-94-015-9795-1 , pp. 27 .
  5. ↑ Explore North Oropouche watercourse . In: Trinidad Newsday . 4th May 2017.
  6. ↑ Where rice was king . In: Trinidad Express . September 4, 2010.
  7. ↑ Scielo.br: Emergent arboviruses in Brazil. Retrieved June 8, 2017 .