
The Lungwebungu River (in Angola Lungué Bungo) of
Central Africa is the largest
tributary of the upper
Zambezi River. The
headwaters of the Lungwebungu are in central
Angola at an elevation around , and it flows south-east across the
southern African
plateau. Within it has developed the character which it keeps for most of its course, of extremely intricate
meanders, with multiple channels and
oxbow lakes, in a swampy channel about wide which in turn is in a shallow valley with a
floodplain wide, inundated in the
wet season.
The edges of the floodplain are a white sandy soil covered in thin forest. The main river channel grows from wide to wide near the Zambezi, and its floodplain suddenly broadens as it merges with the Zambezi, at the beginning of the
Barotse Floodplain, which is wide at that point.
While the river is a valuable resource to people living near it as a source of fish, its meanders make it unsuitable for
water transport
Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used throu ...
except in the wet season when
canoes and small boats can navigate the floodwaters.
References
Rivers of Angola
Rivers of Zambia
Tributaries of the Zambezi River
International rivers of Africa
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