The Malibamat'so River is a river in northern
Lesotho
Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...
. Its origin is near the
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
n border, where it drains the eastern slopes of the
Maloti Range. It flows southwards past the village of
Lejone, and eventually joins the
Senqu River northeast of
Mohlanapeng.
The Malibamat'so forms the northern arm of the
Katse Dam
The Katse Dam, a concrete arch dam on the Malibamat'so River in Lesotho, is Africa's second largest double-curvature arch dam after the Tekezé Dam in Ethiopia. Located just below the confluence of the Bokong River, which forms the western arm ...
reservoir, a part of the
Lesotho Highlands Water Project
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is an ongoing water supply project with a hydropower component, developed in partnership between the governments of Lesotho and South Africa. It comprises a system of several large dams and tunnels t ...
. Katse is Africa's highest elevation dam at above sea level.
[Fitzpatrick, M., Blond, B., Pitcher, G., Richmond, S., and Warren, M. (2004) ''South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland.'' Footscray, VIC: Lonely Planet.] Here the river is joined by the Bokong/Bokung River. Downstream the Malibamat'so's left bank tributaries are the Matsoku and Semenanyane Rivers, before it forms a right bank tributary of the Senqu/Orange River.
Location
References
Rivers of Lesotho
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