Kwando

It has jurisdiction over activities in the Kwando-Linyanti-Chobe System in the Zambezi River Basin and had jurisdiction over the Okavango River before OKACOM was formed.

Water profile of Namibia 2008

In the Chobe area this flooding begins with the start of the rainfall (runoff is constrained by flat topography and depressions with slightly heavier soils) in January-February and continues through to March-April when water is received from the Rivers Linyati (Kwando in Angola) and Chobe and also from the Zambezi (all with sources in Angola);

Water profile of Botswana 2008

Botswana, Namibia, Angola and Zambia would like to extract large quantities of water from the Okavango and Kwando rivers and their tributaries for irrigation and urban water use.

Zambezian flooded grasslands 2008

Over half of the external water resources comes from the Zambezi River, while smaller amounts are contributed by the Orange, Kunene and Kwando rivers and rivers from the Okavango.

Water profile of Namibia 2008

And when times were good, Tim and I reveled in our bush lives, our little thatch hut next to the Kwando, a tributary to the great Okavango delta in Botswana, teeming with elephants, buffalo, hippos, antelopes, and spectacular birds and insects.

The Elephant's Secret Sense Caitlin O'Connell 2007

They flooded in along the dry-season banks of the Kavango, Kwando, and Zambezi, away from the bleak withered woodlands, and as the rivers began to swell with the rains of Angola, the elephants made their trek back into the lush green forest.

The Elephant's Secret Sense Caitlin O'Connell 2007

Walking through the sparse dried stalks of corn, we followed the path of the “Dirty Seven,” the troublesome clan of bulls that had been marauding crops up and down the Kwando all last season.

The Elephant's Secret Sense Caitlin O'Connell 2007

The romantic images of a little thatch hut along the Kwando River were soon replaced by the harsh realities of a newly independent African country.

The Elephant's Secret Sense Caitlin O'Connell 2007

AS THE RADIO-TRACKING MISSION was in full swing, money became available to do an aerial census of the region, involving total elephant counts along the Kavango and Kwando Rivers and additional counts inland within the West Caprivi Game Reserve and the Mudumu and Mamili National Parks.

The Elephant's Secret Sense Caitlin O'Connell 2007

We started the operation on the Nova floodplain to the east, then moved to the Golden Triangle, the Kwando floodplain, Horseshoe, and, finally, Mudumu and Mamili National Parks.

The Elephant's Secret Sense Caitlin O'Connell 2007