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Namibia: Efundja, Nature Gone Haywire

There is no diversion of water in the Kunene River. Neither is there any indication of human related activities that could have aggravated the floods in the north, efundja, surveyors and water officials said this week. "There is no diversion of water whatsoever," Wolfgang Stehn, a qualified surveyor who works in Angola told the Economist this week. Two weeks ago the Economist reported ...

Author: olle.eriksson

Thanks for the article. Having lived in Northern Namibia for long spells since my birth in 1941, I frequently heard claims that the Cunene (Kunene) River when in flood spills over into the oshana system of Southern Angola and Northern Namibia. I have travelled frequently on the Angolan side along the river from Ruacana and Calueque to north of Xangongo and nowhere is there a chance that the river would spill over. The most likely place for such would be just east of Calueque where the river level at times gets quite close to Omindamba on the border, not far north of of the Olushandja dam but even here there is a ridge separating the Cunene from the Olushandja-Oshana Etaka system. So, the oshana system is watered only by rainfalls in the Cuvelai basin between the Cunene and Cubango/Kavango rivers and on the oshana area itself, plus to a limited extent by the overflowing of the Caluegue - Olushandja - Oshakati canal. - At every strong efundja there are even rumours about crocodiles having been spotted but that have must been a long long time ago when it last happened. - Sorry to say, but people around Oshakati have built there houses and shebeens on low ground which also in the past was flooded by efundjas, but the efundjas of recent decades have so small that people have forgotten or do not know what it was like in the early 70's, and especially in the early 50's when the Cuvelai - Amutse - Ekuma rivers where in strong flow for months.



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