Pungwe River ( or ''Rio Púnguè'') is a long river in

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. It rises below

Mount Nyangani Mount Nyangani (formerly Mount Inyangani) is the highest mountain in Zimbabwe at . The mountain is located within Nyanga National Park in Nyanga District, about north-northeast of Mutare. The summit lies atop a small outcrop of rock around abov ...

in the

Eastern Highlands :''"Eastern Highlands" also refers to Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, and part of the Great Dividing Range, Australia.'' The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe ...

of Zimbabwe and then flows southeastwards through the Manica and

Sofala Sofala , at present known as Nova Sofala , used to be the chief seaport of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. The first recorded use of this port town w ...

provinces of Mozambique. The Pungwe enters the Urema Valley, the southernmost portion of the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley () is a series of contiguous geographic depressions, approximately 6,000 or in total length, the definition varying between sources, that runs from the southern Turkish Hatay Province in Asia, through the Red Sea, to Moz ...

, where it forms the southern boundary of

Gorongosa National Park Gorongosa National Park is at the southern end of the Great African Rift Valley in the heart of central Mozambique, Southeast Africa. The more than park comprises the valley floor and parts of surrounding plateaus. Rivers originating on nearby ...

. The

Urema River The Urema Valley, also known as the Urema Graben, is a lowland valley in Sofala Province of central Mozambique. The Urema Valley extends from the Zambezi River south to Sofala Bay. It is a typical graben valley, with a flat bottom and escarpments ...

joins it, and the river follows the rift valley southward. Large seasonal wetlands form around the Pungwe and Urema rivers in the rift valley section. It empties into the

Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (, , ) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about long and across at its narrowest point, and reaches a depth of about off the coa ...

at Beira, forming a large estuary. It is one of the major rivers of Mozambique and often causes floods. BeiraFromTheISS

Tributaries

The principal left tributaries are, from upstream to downstream, the Nhazonia, Txatola, Vinduzi, and Nhandugue-Urema. The right tributaries are the Honde and the Muda.

Pungwe basin

Administratively, the Pungwe Basin covers parts of Sofala and Manica provinces in Mozambique, and a large part of

Mutasa District Mutasa District is one of seven districts in Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe. Mutasa District is located 30 km northeast of Mutare and stretches up to the Honde Valley, which is about 100 km northeast of Mutare along a tarred road that b ...

in Zimbabwe. A small portion of the basin in Zimbabwe falls in

Nyanga District Nyanga District is located in Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe. The administrative center is Nyanga village. The 2022 National Zimbabwe census reported its population at 146,227, with 51.9% female and 48.1% male population. Geography Nyanga Dist ...

. As of 2003, the basin's population in Mozambique is estimated at 1,104,000 people and that for Zimbabwe at 96,000 people.

Water supply systems

Beira metropolitan area in Mozambique receives its water supply from the Pungwe River. The 2004 water demand from the Beira/Dondo water supply, which included the Mutua and Mafambisse areas, was estimated at /day. The city of

Mutare Mutare, formerly known as Umtali until 1982, is the capital and largest city in the province of Manicaland. It is the third most populated in Zimbabwe. Having surpassed Gweru in the 2012 census, with an urban area, urban population of 224,802 ...

is supplied from the Pungwe River through an inter-catchment transfer facility. The quantities transferred to are limited to a maximum of by the provisions of a water permit and system design. In addition, on 27 September 1995, it was agreed at a meeting of the Mozambican and Zimbabwean ministers responsible for water affairs that water could be abstracted from the Pungwe River to supply the city of Mutare, with an upper limit of . Consequently, a fixed abstraction of by Mutare city has been adopted as water demand from the Pungwe River. The Mutasa Rural District is also expected to draw water from the Pungwe pipeline to supply villages along its route. Climate change is predicted to lead to about 10% reduction in annual rainfall. This implies decreased river flow and available water for the Pungwe River basin, with possibly severe consequences for agricultural production. While the between-year variability in flow is not predicted to change significantly, within-year variability is expected to increase. This will worsen both floods and droughts.

Discharge

Discharge of the Pungwe River at Jangada (). Period from 1998/01/01 to 2023/12/31 (Source: ''The Flood Observatory''):

References

External links

Pungwe River Project

NASA: Earth from Space
* {{Rivers of Mozambique Rivers of Mozambique Rivers of Zimbabwe Mozambique Channel International rivers of Africa