Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Angolan Catchments of Northern Botswana’s Major Rivers: The Cubango, Cuito, Cuando and Zambezi Rivers

2022; Springer Nature (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-030-86102-5_2

2213-2104

John Mendelsohn,

Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies

Other than modest amounts of local rainfall, all other surface water in northern BotswanaBotswana comes from riverRiver catchments in Angola, and to a lesser degree from north-western ZambiaZambia. The four major river systems that supply water to Botswana are the CubangoCubango and CuitoCuito (which jointly supply the Okavango DeltaOkavango Delta), the CuandoCuando (which provides the water of the LinyantiLinyanti SwampsSwamp and SavutiSavuti ChannelChannel) and the ZambeziZambezi (which fills the ChobeChobe riverRiver). The catchments lie either on shallow soilsSoil (much of the CubangoCubango catchment and the eastern upper catchment of the ZambeziZambezi), or on deep sandsSand (all of the CuitoCuito and CuandoCuando, part of the Cubango, and much of the Western Zambezi catchment). RiverRiver discharges following rain from the former are relatively rapidRapid, reaching northern Botswana towards the end of the rains. Those from catchments of deep sand are extremely slow, arriving in Botswana later during the dry months.