The Nzoia River is a

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

n river, rising from

Cherangany hills The Cherang'any Hills are a range of hills in the western highlands of Kenya. The hills are one of Kenya's five main forests and catchment areas. The highlands, the large central plateau, is divided by the Mau Escarpment which rises from the bord ...

. It passes through Kapsara, Springer ,Moi's bridge then crosses to Kakamega county.It flows south and then west, eventually flowing into Lake Victoria near the town of Port Victoria. The river has a discharge of about 118 m³/s or about 3,721 million cubic metres annually, making it the second biggest river in the country by discharge. The river is important to Western Kenya, flowing through a region estimated to be populated by over 3.5 million people. Its waters provide irrigation all year round, while the annual floods around the lowland area of Budalang'i deposit sediment that contributes to the area's good agricultural production. Around the industrial region centred at

Webuye Webuye, previously named Broderick Falls, is an industrial town in Bungoma County, Kenya. Located on the main road to Uganda, the town is home to the Pan African Paper Mills, the largest paper factory in the region, as well as a number of heav ...

, the river absorbs a lot of effluent from the

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...

and sugar factories in the area. The river has a number of spectacular waterfalls, and is thought to possess good hydroelectricity generation potential. The river experiences annual floods at the flat and swampy lower end. This leads to perennial humanitarian crisis in the Budalangi flood plains.

External links

Flooding on the Nzoia River
at

NASA Earth Observatory NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information pertaining to the climate and the environment which are being provided by NA ...

Rivers of Kenya Tributaries of Lake Victoria {{Kenya-river-stub