The Umfolozi River (also uMfolozi, Imfolozi or Mfolozi) is a river in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

, a province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is formed by the confluence of the

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

(''Imfolozi emnyama'') and

White Umfolozi The White Umfolozi River originates just west of Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and has a confluence with the Black Umfolozi River at to form the Umfolozi River, which flows eastward towards the Indian Ocean. See also * List of rivers ...

(''Imfolozi emhlope'') Rivers near the southeastern boundary of the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve. The

isiZulu Zulu ( ), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in, and indigenous to, Southern Africa. Nguni dialects are regional or social varieties of the Nguni language, distinguished by vocabulary, pronunciatio ...

name ''imFolozi'' is generally considered to describe the

zigzag A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular. In geometry, this pattern is described as a ...

course followed by both tributaries, though other explanations have been given. The river flows in an easterly direction to the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

at Maphelana, a coastal resort just south of the St Lucia River mouth. It originally meandered over the Monzi Flats, where it split into numerous slow-flowing channels before entering the St. Lucia

Estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

at Honeymoon Bend. The slow-moving water and reed beds in channels operated as a natural filtering system that removed

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

from the Umfolozi floodwaters and created a rich habitat for numerous species.

Ecology

During the 1950s, the Umfolozi Landowners Association contained and artificially channelled the river through the Monzi Flats to develop

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

farms. The new Umfolozi canal resulted in the unfiltered water depositing its silt load after entering the slower moving St. Lucia Estuary. This caused the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

mouth to rapidly silt up. There had only been one record of this occurring until that time, during the sustained drought during the 1930s. At the

Black Umfolozi River The Black Umfolozi River () is one of the two main tributaries to the Umfolozi River in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. It forms part of the Upper Umfolozi (Zulu: Enhla neMfolozi) – the Lower Umfolozi being the area downstream of its confluence wi ...

and the

White Umfolozi River The White Umfolozi River originates just west of Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and has a confluence with the Black Umfolozi River at to form the Umfolozi River, which flows eastward towards the Indian Ocean. See also * List of rivers ...

, join to form the Umfolozi.

Characteristics

It is a

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...

ing river, with a catchment area of 11,068 km³. It is 38 metres wide near its mouth, with a slope gradient of 0.36 m/km. The average diameter of the bed material is 0.35 mm (

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

Sediment problems

The river transports carries annually 1.4 million tonnes of

suspended sediment The suspended load of a flow of fluid, such as a river, is the portion of its sediment uplifted by the fluid's flow in the process of sediment transportation. It is kept suspended by the fluid's turbulence. The suspended load generally consists of ...

to the ocean. The government started a costly

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

operation in the

mouth area, but it proved ineffective. After years of dredging, the next plan was to prevent the Umfolozi River from entering the St Lucia estuary. The Umfolozi River was

canalised River engineering is a discipline of civil engineering which studies human intervention in the course, characteristics, or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. People have intervened in the natural course and b ...

straight out to sea at Maphelana. The impact of this decision continues; the silt plume from the river is often blown by strong south winds as far north as

Sodwana Bay Sodwana Bay is a bay in South Africa on the KwaZulu Natal north coast, between St. Lucia and Lake Sibhayi. It is in the Sodwana Bay National Park, and the Maputaland Marine Reserve, and is a popular recreational diving destination. The term i ...

, 100 km away. The changes threaten the

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

s, which provide fish habitat and protect the shore. In addition, it jeopardises the associated good snorkelling available at Cape Vidal, part of

iSimangaliso Wetland Park iSimangaliso Wetland Park is situated on the east coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, about north of Durban by road. It is South Africa's third-largest protected area, spanning of coastline, from the Mozambique, Mozambican border in the n ...

, a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Fish

The

scaly yellowfish The scaly yellowfish, or KwaZulu-Natal yellowfish, (''Labeobarbus natalensis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. This fish is found in the Tugela River System in South Africa, as well as in the Umzimkulu, Umfolozi and ...

''(Labeobarbus natalensis)'' is a fish found in the Umfolozi River System as well as in the

Umzimkulu Umzimkhulu is a town in Harry Gwala District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The town lies 243 km north-east of Mthatha, 18 km south-west of Ixopo, and 108 km south south-west of Pietermaritzburg, the provin ...

, Umkomazi,

Tugela The Tugela River (; ) is the largest river in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. With a total length of , and a drop of 1370 metres in the lower 480 km, it is one of the most important rivers of the country. The river originates in Mo ...

and the Mgeni. It is a common

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

species in KwaZulu-Natal Province and it lives in different habitats between the

Drakensberg The Drakensberg (Zulu language, Zulu: uKhahlamba, Sotho language, Sotho: Maloti, Afrikaans: Drakensberge) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, Southern Africa, Great Escarpment, which encloses the central South Africa#Geography, Sout ...

foothills and the coastal lowlands.

Aerial photos

image:StLuciaWetland L7 07may01.jpg, The Mfolozi Rivers are seen converging on the

image:St Lucia Estuary ISS006-E-38182.jpg, The old and new courses near the mouth, with the Msunduzi converging from the left (i.e. south), enclosing a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

. Also note the silt plume at sea.

References

{{reflist

External links

A map of Major South African Rivers
Rivers of KwaZulu-Natal