Journals Information
Universal Journal of Geoscience(CEASE PUBLICATION) Vol. 2(7), pp. 200 - 211
DOI: 10.13189/ujg.2014.020703
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Comparing Africa鈥檚 Shared River Basins 鈥� The Limpopo, Orange, Juba and Shabelle Basins
Abdullahi Elmi Mohamed *
Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 76, SE 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
ABSTRACT
The paper compares the Limpopo and Orange Rivers in Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Juba and Shabelle Rivers in the Horn of Africa (HoA), which all are internationally shared basins. The aim is to identify differences and similarities between the river basins in the two regions in order to increase our knowledge and understanding of the issue of shared rivers. Relevant data were mainly collected and methods applied include document and literature review, text analysis, interviews with key professional persons during several study visits to the regions. Both the physical geography and the sectoral water uses of the rivers were presented and analyzed. Climatic similarities stand out when comparing the basins, as they are characterized by unevenly distributed rainfall patterns with great seasonal and annual variations, and the regions are water scarce. In both regions, the population is increasing, while the available water resource is decreasing. In all of the four basins, the regions are facing inevitable crisis of water scarcity. The river basins differ however primarily in terms of physical development of rivers鈥� water resources. The rivers in SADC have been developed for varieties of uses while the rivers in HoA are under-developed and under-utilized. The SADCrivers have established joint institutions for cross-border river cooperation while the HoA rivers have never had any type of river cooperation. Since the rivers have almost similar climatic and physical conditions, the legitimate research question in the future could be: what caused the differences in resource development and cooperation?
KEYWORDS
Limpopo River, Orange River, Juba River, Shabelle River, SADC, Horn of Africa, Water Resources
Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Abdullahi Elmi Mohamed , "Comparing Africa鈥檚 Shared River Basins 鈥� The Limpopo, Orange, Juba and Shabelle Basins," Universal Journal of Geoscience(CEASE PUBLICATION), Vol. 2, No. 7, pp. 200 - 211, 2014. DOI: 10.13189/ujg.2014.020703.
(b). APA Format:
Abdullahi Elmi Mohamed (2014). Comparing Africa鈥檚 Shared River Basins 鈥� The Limpopo, Orange, Juba and Shabelle Basins. Universal Journal of Geoscience(CEASE PUBLICATION), 2(7), 200 - 211. DOI: 10.13189/ujg.2014.020703.