The Phongolo River is a river in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
. It is a tributary of the
Maputo River. It rises near
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
in northern
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is loca ...
, flows east through
Pongolo, is dammed at
Pongolapoort, and crosses the
Ubombo Mountains
The Lebombo Mountains, also called Lubombo Mountains ( pt, Montes Libombos), are an , narrow range of mountains in Southern Africa. They stretch from Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Punda Maria in the Limpopo Province in South Africa in ...
; then it flows north towards
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
, joining the Maputo River.
Its main tributaries are the
Bivane River
The Bivane River (also Pivaan River), a right bank tributary of the Pongola River, is situated in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Course
The ultimate source of the river is at over 2,000 m a.s.l. in the uplands north of Utrecht. It flows be ...
and the
Mozana River in South Africa, as well as the
Ngwavuma in
Eswatini
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
.
See also
*
1305 Pongola
1305 Phongolo, provisional designation , is a background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 25 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 19 July 1928, by English astronomer Harry Edwin Wood at the Union Observ ...
*
Pongolapoort Dam
Pongolapoort Dam, commonly referred to as Jozini Dam creating Lake Jozini, is an arch type dam (double-curvature single-arch) in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa located on the Phongolo River. The dam is situated just north of the settlement ...
*
List of rivers of South Africa
References
Maputo River
Rivers of KwaZulu-Natal
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