Swakop River

The Swakop together with its tributary Khan one of the largest temporary water-bearing dry rivers in the western part of Namibia. It is 460 km long and has a 30,100 km ² large catchment area. In Swakopmund it flows into the South Atlantic. The name comes from the language of the Nama and Damara, Khoekhoegowab: Tsoa - xaub. Tsoa means excrement opening or anus while xaub stands for the votes excrement. This name is explained by the observation that the river when it rains large amounts of brownish sludge carries with it and releases them into the Atlantic Ocean.

Hydrology

The Swakop drains a 30,100 km ² large catchment area which extends from the mouth into the Atlantic at Swakopmund on Otjimbingwe to about 50 km east of Okahandja and south in the Khomas Hochland to outside Windhoek. The highest point of the catchment area lies on 2480 m. The annual rainfall varies from 0 mm in the lower reaches up to 475 mm in the eastern Khomas Highlands. 39% of the catchment area experienced rainfall greater than 300 mm per year and as many as 80 % of the catchment annual rainfall over 100 mm.

The Von Bach Dam near Okahandja and the Swakoppforte Dam west of Great Barmen in the upper reaches of the Swakop are for water supply Central Namibia is of outstanding importance. Like all Riviere also has the Swakop on a number of significant sources and in the lower reaches of larger wetlands. Levels of ground water often leads to soil salinity there.

Again and again, suddenly, the floods in the lower reaches, the cause of which lies in the increasingly repressed by land-use gallery forest. This contributes to an increased and more rapid runoff and increased erosion of the Swakop alluvial.

Vegetation and fauna

Due to its size and extent, the Swakop to a very diverse catchment area. 29 % of the area are in the range of the highveld savannah, 28 % are thornbush savannah, 34 % semi-desert and savanna transition zone, and 9 % is held by the central Namib. In the area of Highland prevails more or less dense bush vegetation. In the arid lower reaches Stronger vegetation limited to the direct Swakop with the typical gallery vegetation from Ana trees ( Faidherbia albida ), tamarisk ( Tamarix ), camel thorn (Acacia erioloba ), Salvadora, different fig species Euclea but also tobacco (Nicotiana spp.), Datura ( Datura ) and mesquite ( Prosopis spp.) as an invasive species.

Wild occurs in the region of the Swakop practically only in sparsely populated lower reaches before and is limited to antelope, smaller predators and birds. Big game such as elephant, rhino and lions and other big cats are no longer to be found. Moreover catchment area, however, are a whole lot of guest and game farms that also offer great cats a home.

Use and settlement

In contrast to the rest of the dry rivers in Namibia's west are in the catchment area of the Swakops larger settlements, the towns Usakos, Karibib, Otjimbingwe, Okahandja and the capital of Namibia, Windhoek, so that the population is in the catchment area over 200,000.

While in the upper reaches of the river, distant farms often extensive grazing is operated, the dams and the high ground water level along the entire Swakoptals also allow more intensive agriculture and even vegetable, such as the cultivation of asparagus in Swakopmund Goanikontes. Has the large groundwater withdrawal in agriculture and the high water consumption in the cities an increasing lowering of the groundwater level to rise. This results in particular in the lower reaches to the drying up of many springs and the death of the gallery vegetation. Due to the agricultural use of the erosion is greatly increased, so that more and more valuable soil is lost and the flood intensity of the Swakop increases.

The uranium mines ' Langer Heinrich ' in the lower reaches of the Swakop and Rössing at Khan not only contribute to a high water consumption to further reduce the water table, it is also claimed repeatedly that radioactive dust over the Khan enters the Swakop and cultivated as vegetables contaminated.

A well-known monument is the Swakopbrücke.

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