Mozambique: From the bush to the best—training the trackers of tomorrow | Gorongosa National Park
Southern Mozambique: The Umbeluzi river is running dry – A Verdade
11:13 CAT | 22 Dec 2016
A Verdade
The Umbeluzi basin is running out of water due to the drought in southern Mozambique that has been going on since 2015. Last week, water authorities suspended the use of water from the basin by farmers in order to guarantee supply to Maputo, Matola and Boane cities.
At 7:00 pm on Wednesday, the Umbeluzi river bed was dry at Goba, according to the National Directorate of Water Resources Management’s daily national hydrological bulletin. The Pequenos Libombos dam, which has 33 meters of water, 14.79 percent of capacity, is permitting discharge of just over 3 cubic meters, although its own tributary is dry.
The forecast for the rainy season, which was supposed to begin in October, indicated normal rainfall for the southern region and a rise in the volume of water available in the Umbeluzi basin, but this did not happen.
The Umbeluzi is originates in Swaziland and enters Mozambique at Goba. Its main tributaries in Mozambique are the Calichane and Movene rivers. This international basin has a total area of about 5,460 square kilometres, of which 3,140 square kilometres are in Swaziland, 80 square kilometres in SA and the remaining 2,240 square kilometres in Mozambique.
On 15 July, when the river level was at 1.5 meters, the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources and ARA Sul decided to suspend the use of water from the basin by farmers. At the time, Waters of the Region of Maputo explained to @ Verdade that the supply of drinking water to the cities of Maputo, Matola and Boane was normal.
Source: A Verdade
Show comments
Also read
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.