Kafue River

Kafue
Kafue River, Chamufumbu, near Lubungu Pontoon, Zambia
The Kafue River Basin
Location
Country	Zambia
City	Kitwe, Mazabuka, Kafue Town
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Zambian border with the Democratic Republic of Congo northwest of Kipushi, North-Western Province, Zambia
• coordinates	11°36′S 27°12′E / 11.600°S 27.200°E / -11.600; 27.200
• elevation	1,350 m (4,430 ft)
Mouth	Zambezi
• location	near Chirundu, Southern Province, Zambia
• coordinates	15°56′34″S 28°54′51″E / 15.9429°S 28.9143°E / -15.9429; 28.9143
• elevation	410 m (1,350 ft)
Length	1,576 km (979 mi)
Basin size	155,000 km2 (60,000 sq mi)
Discharge
• average	320 m3/s (11,000 cu ft/s)
Basin features
River system	Zambezi

The Kafue River is the longest river lying wholly within Zambia at about 1,576 kilometres (979 mi) long.^[1] Its water is used for irrigation and for hydroelectric power.^[2] It is the largest tributary of the Zambezi,^[3] and of Zambia's principal rivers, it is the most central and the most urban. More than 50% of Zambia's population live in the Kafue River Basin and of these around 65% are urban.^[1]

It has a mean flow rate of 320 m³/s through its lower half, with high seasonal variations. The river discharges 10 km³ per year into the

The river again develops intricate meanders and a maze of channels in a swampy floodplain, with oxbow lakes and lagoons. It flows 20 km west of the permanent part of the Lukanga Swamp which fills a circular depression, and which drains through a channel into the Kafue. The area between the swamp and river is flood plain and when that and surrounding areas are inundated in the rainy season, the combined wetland exceeds 6000 km².^[5] This is the first of the three main wildlife areas of the river, and the least surveyed and protected.

Through Kafue National Park

The character of the river changes again, as it forms a less meandering dry-season channel with sandy banks and islands. Continuing south-west it enters the

Like the upper Zambezi, Okavango and Cuando rivers, the Kafue used to flow south all the way to Lake Makgadikgadi and on to the Limpopo River, but the land in that area was uplifted. A rift valley formed running due east of where the Kafue National Park is now, and the Kafue river eroded a channel called the Itezhi-Tezhi Gap through a ridge of hills about 100 m high, flowing eastwards. The Itezhi-Tezhi Dam was built in 1977 at the gap and now forms a reservoir 50 km long and up to 10 km wide.^[8]

Kafue Flats

Further east, the river flows sluggishly across a flat plain called the Kafue Flats (formerly Butwa after the Twa people) and for the third time develops intricate meanders in a maze of swampy channels and lagoons. This time however it also has an immense shallow flood plain which no roads or railways cross, 240 km long and about 50 km wide,^[5] flooded to a depth of less than a metre in the rainy season (deeper in some lagoons and permanently swampy areas), and drying out to a clayey black soil in the dry season. The Kafue Flats are the third major wildlife area of the river. Tens of thousands of Kafue Lechwe live on the Kafue Flats and are adapted to wading the flooded areas. This area also has one of the greatest variety and concentrations of birds in the world. The Lochinvar and Blue Lagoon National Parks have been established on the flats.^[8]

Around Mazabuka as the river gets closer to the town of Kafue, sugar plantations and other large agricultural estates have been established on the fertile black soil and use water from the river in the dry season.^[8]

Kafue Gorge and Dam

The Kafue Flats end at Kafue town and from there, as the rift valley gets deeper, the river drops 550 m over 60 km through the

See Kafue Railway Bridge for a full account. It was opened in 1906 to connect Kafue with Mazabuka and was originally meant to be part of the Cape to Cairo Railway.

Road

The first road bridge across the Kafue was originally built across the Thames in London during the Second World War. After the war, it was dismantled and installed some 9 km downstream from the railway bridge. Previously, road traffic crossed the river by pontoon.^{[citation needed]}

The

In the Kafue flats, the discharge of phosphates in excess fertiliser run-off from commercial farming and the Nakambala Sugar Estate can cause algal blooms and weed growth, reducing fish populations.^[4]

Effluent from mining containing cadmium, lead and mercury have degraded the Kafue River^[11] Municipal water supply had to be suspended when the Kafue River turned blue due to slurry discharge^[12]

Because of its size and geographic location, the Kafue River basin is an

This project heavily influenced development of Zambian Government policy on water resources and in February 2010, the Zambian Cabinet approved a revised National Water policy that "aims to improve water resources management by establishing institutional coordination, engaging in modern methods of integrated water resource management while decentralising government policy to address diverse interests within the water sector".[14]

Itezhi-Tezhi and Kafue Gorge Dams

These have had major negative environmental effects on the river^[4] — see main article on the Itezhi-Tezhi Dam.

Water for irrigation

Commercial plantations, especially those bordering the Kafue flats take large quantities of water for irrigation. Chief of these is the Nakambala Sugar Estate, which draws in excess of 720,000 m³ per day to irrigate 134.13 square kilometres of land to grow sugar cane.^[4]

See also

References