Shebelle River

Catchment area of ​​the Jubba

Satellite image of floods in the middle Shabelle Valley in Ethiopia and southern Somalia, in 2005

F The Shabelle ( Shabeelle Somali, Ethiopia also Shebele or Shebeli, Amharic ሸበሌ ወንዝ Šäbälle wänz, Italian Scebeli, sometimes with the addition Uebi, Webi, Wabi or comb provided ) is at least 1820 km long river in Ethiopia and Somalia.

Shabeel means in Somali "Leopard".

Geography

The river rises in the southwest of the Somali highlands in Mendebo Mountains near Awassa and Yirga Alem Its source is worshiped by the Sidama as of the Arsi Oromo as a holy place. The Shabelle first flows in an easterly and then southeasterly direction along the Audo Mountains through the south-eastern Ethiopia ( Somali-Region/Ogaden ). About half of its course it passes the border to Somalia. In an elongated right-hander his water controls south to Mogadishu, but without touching the capital of Somalia. Then the Shabelle flows along the Benadirküste the Indian Ocean to the southwest, where it seeps into the most of the year in the Wetlands. Only after heavy rains reached at Jilib his mouth in the Juba, the few kilometers to the south opens his hand in the Indian Ocean.

Major towns on the river are Gode, Kalafo and Mustahil in Ethiopia and Beledweyne, Buulobarde, Jawhar and Afgooye in Somalia. The Shabelle formed the northern boundary of Bale in Ethiopia and was the administrative regions Shabeellaha Dhexe (Middle Shabelle ) and Shabeellaha Hoose (Lower Shabelle ) Somalia in the name. When milking Wakena on the upper reaches it is dammed to generate electricity since 1989.

From the north, several seasonal creeks as Erer, Fafen, Galeti and Jerer from the Harar Plateau flow through the Ethiopian Somali region in the Shabelle.

Hydrometrie

The flow rate of the river were each over 28 years ( 1951-79 ) in Belet Uen, located about halfway run length slightly below the Ethiopian - Somali border, and in Afgooye, some 400 kilometers further downstream, measured. The aridity of the climate and branching irrigation channels allow the flow inside Somalia to decrease flow rate: Belet Uen In the mean annual flow rate is still 68 m³ / s, in Afgooye contrast, only 46 m³ / s The size of the river best characterizing flow values ​​are therefore the Belet Uen of.

Hydrograph of the Shabelle ( in m³ / s) (Data base: Station Afgooye, mean monthly flow values ​​1951-79 )