The Mokolo River is a major watercourse in

Limpopo Province Limpopo is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while th ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. This river collects much of the drainage of the

Waterberg Massif The Waterberg ( nso, Thaba Meetse) is a mountainous massif of approximately in north Limpopo Province, South Africa. The average height of the mountain range is 600 m with a few peaks rising up to 2000 m above sea level. Vaalwater town is l ...

and discharges it to the

Limpopo River The Limpopo River rises in South Africa and flows generally eastward through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a group of Tsonga settlers led by Hosi Rivombo who settled in the mountaino ...

. The river's catchment area comprises .

Course

The Mokolo River and its upper course tributaries rise in the southwestern part of the Waterberg, between 1200 and 1600 metres above mean sea level. The Mokolo proper originates about 1.5 km north of

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...

at the confluence of the Sand River with the

Grootspruit River The Mokolo River is a major watercourse in Limpopo Province of South Africa. This river collects much of the drainage of the Waterberg Massif and discharges it to the Limpopo River. The river's catchment area comprises . Course The Mokolo River a ...

in a flattish, open area with numerous

koppie An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...

s. Shortly thereafter it flows northwards through a steep gorge emerging above the town of

Vaalwater Vaalwater is a small town situated on the Mokolo River in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Geography Location The town, unlike other towns in the Limpopo province, is not located on a national road, of which the nearest one is at Nylstr ...

. As it heads northwards it threads through the northern Waterberg, an extensive rock formation that was shaped by hundreds of millions of years of river erosion to yield diverse bluffs and

buttes __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...

.C.Michael Hogan, Mark L. Cooke and Helen Murray, ''The Waterberg Biosphere'', Lumina Technologies, May 22, 2006.
Then the river flows through the relatively flat area of the

lowveld Veld ( or ), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in :Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswa ...

until it enters the

Mokolo Dam Mokolo Dam (previously known as the Hans Strijdom Dam) is a rock-fill type dam located on the Mokolo River, near Lephalale, Limpopo, South Africa. It was established in 1980. The Malmanies River and the Bulspruit River, two tributaries of the Moko ...

. From there, it flows through another gorge before entering the Limpopo Plain, near the junction with the Rietspruit. From this point, the Mokolo River flows through flat sandy areas until it reaches the Limpopo's right bank.

Tributaries and dams

The most important tributaries of the Mokolo are: Sand River (whose uppermost section is named 'Little Nyl'), Klein Sand River, Sandspruit, Sondagsloop, Loubadspruit, Grootspruit, Sterkstroom, Brakspruit, Malmanies, Bulspruit, Rietspruit, Sandloop, Poer se Loop and the Tambotie River. The

is the only large dam in the system.

Ecology

Approximately 87 percent of the river's water use is for

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. Some

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

rehabilitation in the upper Mokolo has been carried out and that effort has been deemed a success. The

Mokolo Dam Nature Reserve The Mokolo Dam Nature Reserve or Mokolo Dam Provincial Park is a protected area of bushveld in the Limpopo province, South Africa. It almost surrounds the Mokolo Dam on the Mokolo River. It is located 32 km south of Lephalale, just northeast ...

is located by the eastern and southern sides of the Mokolo Dam reservoir.Mokolo Dam Nature Reserve, Limpopo
/ref> The highest concentration of

hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...

in the Limpopo River is found between the mouths of the Mokolo and the

Mogalakwena River The Mogalakwena River ( af, Magalakwenarivier) is one of the main watercourses in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is also a major tributary of the Limpopo River. Course file:Waterberg SPOT 1369.jpg, left, SPOT Satellite photograph of the north ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Mokolo Dam Nature Reserve, LimpopoWater Resource Quality Situation Assessment
Rivers of Limpopo Tributaries of the Limpopo River

Course

Tributaries and dams

Ecology

See also

References

External links