The White Nile ( Arabic: النيل الأبيض an nīl al 'abyaḍ ) is a section of the Nile River in Sudan from the confluence of the El-Ghazal River (left tributary) to the confluence of the Blue Nile at Khartoum .
| White nile | |
|---|---|
| Arab. النيل الأبيض | |
 Nile near the city of Jinja , Uganda | |
| Characteristic | |
| Length | 3700 km |
| Pool | 1,800,000 km² |
| Water consumption | 878 m³ / s |
| Watercourse | |
| Source | |
| • Coordinates | |
| Mouth | Nile |
| • Location | Khartoum |
| • Coordinates | |
| Location | |
| Water system | Nile → Mediterranean Sea |
| Country |
|
In the XIX century, the efforts of European researchers to find the source of the Nile were mainly focused on finding the source of the White Nile, which was lost in the vastness of Black Africa. Until the 20th century, Lake Victoria was considered the source of the White Nile, however, in 1937, the German explorer Burkhard Valdecker studied the lake basin and designated the Kager River as the source of the White Nile [1] .
The White Nile got its name because of the large amount of white clay that its tributary Sobat brings [2] .
General Features
The length of the White Nile itself is 957 km, the width of the channel is 1-2 km, the catchment area is 1059 thousand km². In the upper reaches, the water discharge is uniform (an average of 453 m³ / s per year); below the Sobat inflow, the discharge increases significantly [3] . The average water flow at Khartoum is 808 m³ / s (maximum - in October, 1354 m³ / s). During floods (June - September), the White Nile gives less than 30% of the total flow of the Nile. In low water (April - May) provides about 80% of the total flow. 40 km above Khartoum - Gebel-Aulia dam, which was created to regulate the flow of the Lower Nile. Near the city of Kostya there is a movable railway bridge [4] . Water is used for irrigation [5] . Navigable from the city of Juba to the mouth [6] .
Geographic Information
Victoria Lake Basin
The Kagera River, which flows into Lake Victoria near the Tanzanian city of Bukoba , is the largest tributary that feeds the lake, but sources differ in understanding which of the Kagera tributaries is considered the source of the Nile as such. This is either the Ruvironza River [7] (the southernmost of the tributaries), flowing from the province of Bururi , Burundi ; or the Nyabarongo River [1] (the largest of the tributaries [8] ), starting in the forests of Newngwe , Rwanda . Both of these rivers merge near the Rusumo Falls, on the border between Rwanda and Tanzania.
The waterfall gained fame during the events of April 28-29, 1994, when during the day 250,000 Rwandans crossed the bridge near the waterfall and headed to Ngara , Tanzania , which the UN Commissariat for Refugees called "the fastest and most massive refugee exodus in modern history" [ 9] . Part of the borders of Rwanda — Tanzania and Tanzania — Uganda passes along the Kager.
Uganda
The river originating in Lake Victoria is called the Victoria Nile. The source place near Jinja is marked by a monument. At the source are the Owen Falls and Kiira hydropower plants, then the river goes through the Bujagali waterfall and the Bujagali hydropower plant about 15 km downstream.
Then it flows north and west through Uganda, feeding Lake Kyoga in the center of the country and then again west. At Karuma Falls, it passes under the Karuma Bridge in the southeast corner of the Murchison Falls National Park. Built in 1963 to support the cotton industry, at the time of the confrontation with the Lord's resistance army, the Karuma Bridge was a key stop on the way to Gulu , on which transport convoys were formed, then sent further north under the protection of the military [10] . In 2009, the Ugandan government announced the construction of a 750-megawatt hydroelectric power station a few kilometers from the bridge. The World Bank has confirmed funding for a 200 MW plant, but Uganda has chosen a more powerful project, intending to make up the difference with oil revenues [11] .
In front of Lake Albert, Victoria Nile falls into a narrow canyon about 7 m wide and then forms the Kabarega Falls (Murchison Falls), marking the beginning of the western branch of the East African Rift . The river flows into Lake Albert opposite the Blue Mountains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Emerging from Lake Albert, the river takes on the name Albert Nile. The only bridge that crosses this site is in the Nebby area of northern Uganda . There is a ferry between Ajumani and Moyo [12] , navigation on the river is carried out by small boats and canoes.
Mountain Nile
At Nimule, Albert-Nile turns north, enters the territory of South Sudan and becomes Mountain Nile or Bahr al-Jabal. Then Bahr al-Jabal, breaking the thresholds, enters the vast swamp plain of Sudd . Then it flows into Lake No, where it merges with the Bahr al-Ghazal river and forms the White Nile itself. Bahr al-Jabal passes through Juba , the capital of South Sudan, which is the southernmost shipping point in the Nile system, and then through Kodok , the site of the Fashod crisis of 1898, which marked the end of the colonial division of Africa .
Then the river flows north through Sudan and near Khartoum , the capital of Sudan, merges with the Blue Nile , forming the Nile itself .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Awulachew, 2012 , p. ten.
- ↑ Awulachew, 2012 , p. 7.
- ↑ White Nile // Encyclopedic Handbook "Africa" / Editor in Chief An. A. Gromyko. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1986-1987.
- ↑ White Nile River . - article from Encyclopædia Britannica Online . Date of treatment April 19, 2019.
- ↑ White Nile // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
- ↑ Dictionary of Modern Geographic Names / Edited by Acad. V.M. Kotlyakova. - Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria, 2006.
- ↑ Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience / Kwame Anthony Appiah. - Oxford University Press, 2005 .-- P. 242. - 3960 p. - ISBN 9780195170559 .
- ↑ LA Lewis; L. Berry. African Environments and Resources . - Routledge, 2012 .-- P. 316. - 424 p. - ISBN 9781136880957 .
- ↑ Ray Wilkinson Issue 110 (Crisis in the Great Lakes) - Cover Story: Heart of Darkness . Refugees Magazine (December 1, 1997). Date of treatment April 26, 2016.
- ↑ The jinx and mysteries of Karuma Bridge . New Vision (12th February 2013). Date of appeal April 24, 2019.
- ↑ Hereward Holland . Uganda to build mini oil refinery: minister (May 8, 2009). Date of treatment April 26, 2016.
- ↑ Adjumani and Moyo districts to get new ferry . New Vision: Uganda's Leading Daily (16th May 2013). Date of appeal April 24, 2019.
Literature
- Seleshi Bekele Awulachew. The Nile River Basin: Water, Agriculture, Governance and Livelihoods . - Routledge, 2012 .-- 316 p. - ISBN 9781849712835 .
- Hurst H. The Nile: A General Account of the River and the Utilization of Its Waters. London, 1952 / Harold Hurst; Abbr. per. from English A. B. Shmeleva; Foreword and ed. I.V. Samoilova ; Hardcover artist. N. A. Lipina. - M .: Publishing house of foreign literature , 1954. - 328 p.
- Dmitrevsky Yu. D. Inland waters of Africa and their use / Otv. ed. M.S. Rozin . - L .: Gidrometeoizdat , 1967 .-- 384 p. - 800 copies.
- Nile, a river in Africa // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.