Comprehensive Options Assessment: The Pongolo

Abstract

"The Pongolopoort dam, which impounds the water of the Ponogolo River in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, was built in the 1970s to provide water for irrigation. The dam is located where the river flows through a narrow gorge between the Lebombo and Ubombo mountain ranges, close to the border with Swaziland. Immediately downstream of the dam, a broad alluvial plain, known as the Pongolo Floodplain, extends from the dam to the confluence of the Pongolo and Usutu Rivers, close to the border with Mozambique. Within Mozambique, the river is known as the Rio del Maputo. The river gradient through the Pongolo Floodplain, which is approximately 130 km2 in extent, is just 0.033 m km-1. The floodplain is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in South Africa. It comprises the meandering river and a highly heterogeneous complex of lagoons, ox-bow lakes, abandoned river channels, marshes, levees and floodplain grassland, which provide habitat for a wide range of birds and animals."