Mushawe

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Mushawe River
Mushawe Maranda.JPG
The Mushawe River at Maranda (No. 1) Business Centre.
Location
Country Zimbabwe
Physical characteristics
Source 
  locationSouth Central Zimbabwe
Mouth  
  location
Mwenezi River
Basin size Mwenezi District

The Mushawe River (alternative spelling Mushawi River) is a right-bank tributary of the Mwenezi River in Zimbabwe. It rises in the Nemande mountain area and flows through the Maranda area to join the Mwenezi River downstream of Manyuchi Dam, Mwenezi District.

Contents

Hydrology

The Mzingane River is an ephemeral river with flow generally restricted to the months when rain takes place (November to March). However, the lower Mushawe River bed forms an alluvial aquifer, which generally holds water year-round. [1]

In places, permanent to semi-permanent pools occur, providing habitat for crocodiles.

Development

The Mushawe River is dammed at Dengenya. The dam was built to supply water for irrigation but is currently full of sand. There are also some small dams on the minor tributaries of the Mushawe River. Water for Maranda (No 1) Business Centre is abstracted from the alluvial aquifer below the Mushawe River, slightly upstream of the photo shown above.

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River Natural flowing watercourse

A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague.

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A check dam is a small, sometimes temporary, dam constructed across a swale, drainage ditch, or waterway to counteract erosion by reducing water flow velocity. Check dams themselves are not a type of new technology; rather, they are an ancient technique dating from the second century A.D. Check dams are typically, though not always, implemented in a system of several dams situated at regular intervals across the area of interest.

An alluvial river is one in which the bed and banks are made up of mobile sediment and/or soil. Alluvial rivers are self-formed, meaning that their channels are shaped by the magnitude and frequency of the floods that they experience, and the ability of these floods to erode, deposit, and transport sediment. For this reason, alluvial rivers can assume a number of forms based on the properties of their banks; the flows they experience; the local riparian ecology; and the amount, size, and type of sediment that they carry.

References

  1. Love, D. de Hamer, W., Owen, R.J.S., Booij, M.J., Uhlenbrook, S., Hoekstra, A. and van der Zaag, P. 2007. Case studies of groundwater – surface water interactions and scale relationships in small alluvial aquifers. In: Abstract volume, 8th WaterNet/WARFSA/GWP-SA Symposium, Lusaka, Zambia, November 2007, p21.

Coordinates: 21°07′S30°28′E / 21.117°S 30.467°E / -21.117; 30.467