The Cauca River () is a river in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

that lies between the Occidental and Central

cordillera A cordillera is a chain or network of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geogra ...

s. From its headwaters in southwestern Colombia near the city of

Popayán Popayán () is the capital of the Colombian department of Cauca. It is located in the Pubenza Valley in southwestern Colombia between the Western Mountain Range and Central Mountain Range. The municipality has a population of 318,059, an a ...

, it joins the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River (, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, ...

near

Magangué Magangué is a city and municipality in the Department of Bolivar. The city is located in the Magdalena River; 20 km north of the mouth of the Cauca River The Cauca River () is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Ce ...

Bolívar Department Bolívar () is a department of Colombia. It was named after one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia. It is located to the north of the country, extending roughly north–south from the Caribbean coast at Cartagena near ...

, and the combined river eventually flows out into the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. It has a length of to its junction with the Magdalena, for a total length of . The river is under the supervision of the ''Cauca Regional Corporation'' and the ''Cauca Valley Regional Autonomous Corporation'', and is navigable for above its junction with the Magdalena. File:Rio cauca popayan.JPG File:Salvajina.jpg File:Río Cauca. Puente Anacaro (3). Cartago - Ansermanuevo, Valle, Colombia.JPG File:Río Cauca.JPG File:Puentes en La Pintada 01.jpg File:Puente de Occidente.JPG File:El río Cauca.jpg

Environmental issues

On November 18, 2007, Colombian newspaper '' El Tiempo'' reported that the river was receiving an average of 500 tons of residual waste a day. Pollution from the city of

, seven gold mines that also add industrial pollutants such as mercury, some 8 sand mills, plus a couple of mines of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and

bauxite Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

, the largest city on the river, depends on the river in a 76 percent. Adding to these other affluent rivers collect residual waters from other major cities and deposit an approximate of 330 tons of residual waste into the river. By the time it gets to

Yumbo Yumbo is a small, industrial city and municipality in western Colombia. It is located in the Valle del Cauca Department, just north of Cali. In 2020, the municipality had a population of approximately 110,000. History Modern Yumbo was founded ...

the river has no oxygen. The Hidroituango energy dam project has seriously affected the Cauca River. The dam has decreased its flow in some parts, up to 80%.

References

External links

Corporación Regional del Cauca

Corporación Autonoma Regional del Valle del Cauca
* {{Authority control Rivers of Colombia Magdalena River