Okavango River rising steadily

THE Okavango River continues to rise, with its level measuring 6,83 metres at Rundu yesterday afternoon, ten centimetres higher than on Tuesday.

On Monday morning, the Okavango level at Rundu stood at 6,65 metres, which was almost 20 centimetres lower than yesterday.The river’s level becomes critical past the seven-metre mark, but according to Guido van Langenhove, Chief Hydrologist in the Ministry of Agriculture, the Okavango’s level dropped slightly in southern Angola on Monday. In Angola the river is called Cubango. ‘We received reports from Menongue in the upper catchment area of the Cubango that water levels have been falling there since the very high level that was reached on January 12,’ Van Langenhove said yesterday afternoon. ‘For comparison, in 2004 the level of the Okavango was 7,01 m on 20 January. The 2009 maximum level was 8,65 m.’But there have since been heavy rains again in southern Angola between Mucundi and the Namibian border. ‘The level of the Okavango is expected to rise further in Rundu in the coming days,’ Van Langenhove said.The Zambezi River in the Caprivi Region is also slowly rising. Updated flows in the Upper Zambezi River in Zambia received from that country’s department of water affairs show that at Lukulu the river measured 3,77 m, higher than one year ago, when it reached 3,20 m. At Katima Mulilo, the Zambezi River was 1,77 m high, two centimetres more than on Tuesday. On January 20 2009, the level had reached 1,91 m. The oshana at Shanalumono near Oshakati stood at 42 centimetres yesterday afternoon and started to flow. ‘Our officer of the oshana basin office in north central Namibia confirmed that there is no sign of the efundja (flood) at Oshakati,’ according to Van Langenhove. ‘There were heavy rains recorded in Angola on January 8 and 9 and remote sensing reported increased flow in the main river at Evale, north of Ondjiva in southern Angola not far from the Namibian border.’ In the South, the sluices of the Hardap Dam near Mariental were closed at 14h00 yesterday after they were opened on Monday at 19h00. About 3 000 cubic metres of water was released to bring the dam’s level down from 70,4 to 69,5 per cent.Water discharge from the Naute Dam near Keetmanshoop was stopped in the early morning hours yesterday after one floodgate was opened for the third time this rainy season on Monday morning.About 210 cubic metres per second was discharged at the Naute Dam and the water flowed into the Fish River.