The Rufiji River lies entirely within
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
. It is also the largest and longest river in the country. The river is formed by the confluence of the
Kilombero
Kilombero District is a district in Morogoro Region, south-western Tanzania.
The district is situated in a vast floodplain, between the Kilombero River in the south-east and the Udzungwa-Mountains in the north-west. On the other side of the Kilo ...
and Luwegu rivers. It is approximately long, with its source in southwestern Tanzania and its mouth on the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
opposite
Mafia Island
Mafia Island (Kisiwa cha Mafia) is an island and district of Pwani Region, Tanzania. The island is the third largest in Tanzanian ocean territory, but is not administratively included within the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, which has been ...
across the
Mafia Channel, in
Pwani Region
Pwani Region (''Mkoa wa Pwani'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The word "''Pwani''" in Swahili means the "''coast''". The regional capital is the town of Kibaha. The Region borders the Tanga Region to the north, M ...
. Its principal tributary is the
Great Ruaha River. It is navigable for approximately .
The Rufiji river is approximately south of
Dar es Salaam. The
river's delta contains the largest
mangrove forest in eastern Africa.
History
A branch of ancient
sea routes led down the East African coast called "Azania" by the Greeks and Romans in the 1st century CE as described in the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and ...
(and, very probably, zh, 澤散, Zesan in the 3rd century by the Chinese), at least as far as the port known to the Romans as
Rhapta
Rhapta ( grc, Ῥάπτα and Ῥαπτά) was an emporion said to be on the coast of Southeast Africa, first described in the 1st century CE. Its location has not been firmly identified, although there are a number of plausible candidate sites. ...
, which was probably located in the delta of the Rufiji River in modern
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
.
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, from October 1914 to July 1915, the river delta was the scene of a
protracted naval operation. These were the attempts, and later achievement, by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
to neutralize and destroy the German cruiser
''Konigsberg''.
Basin
The catchment basin for the Rufiji River complex is .
Hydroelectric Project
Tanzania president
John Magufuli
John Pombe Joseph Magufuli (29 October 1959 – 17 March 2021) was the fifth president of Tanzania, serving from 2015 until his death in 2021. He served as Minister of Works, Transport and Communications from 2000 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015 and w ...
has approved the construction of a controversial new dam and
power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many ...
on the river at Stiegler's Gorge. The power station is expected to provide 2,100 megawatts of electricity, more than triple Tanzania's existing installed hydropower capacity which is only 562 megawatts.
Construction of the dam started on July 26, 2019, and it is expected be ready by 2022.
References
Further reading
*
Chami, F. A. 1999. "The Early Iron Age on Mafia island and its relationship with the mainland." ''Azania'' Vol. XXXIV 1999, pp. 1–10.
* Chami, Felix A. 2002. "The Egypto-Graeco-Romans and Panchea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea." In: ''Society for Arabian Studies Monographs 2 Trade and Travel in the Red Sea Region''. Proceedings of Red Sea Project I held in the British Museum October 2002, pp. 93–104. Edited by Paul Lunde and Alexandra Porter. .
* Miller, J. Innes. 1969. Chapter 8: "The Cinnamon Route". In: ''The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire''. Oxford: University Press.
* Ray, Himanshu Prabha, ed. 1999. ''Archaeology of Seafaring: The Indian Ocean in the Ancient Period''. Pragati Publications, Delhi.
External links
Map of the Rufiji River basin at Water Resources eAtlas
{{Authority control
Rivers of Tanzania