Drying of Ruaha River at Mtera, September 24, 2024

Last Updated 2 weeks ago

Observations:

  1. Some 300km from the source of the Ruaha River the river dries probably already since the 1950s. The virtual usangu drainage assessment station is at Mtera some kilometers upstream of the Mtera Reservoir.
  2. On January 2, 2025 the river dried for the second time this low flow season, due to restrained seasonal rains and abstraction for the rice irrigation on the Usangu Rice Plains upstream.
  3. The flow returned in the Ruaha River at Mtera around December 7, 2024.
  4. The dry river in the low flow season of 2024 – 2025 was observed on September 24, 2024. The first day of drying at Mtera is considered as Alert Two for the authority. The increasingly critical low flow preceding the drying of the Ruaha River upstream of Mtera in the Ruaha National Park will last some weeks during which non-essential abstraction on the Usangu Rive Plain can stil be reduced. At Alert 2 there is still some 2 – 3 months before the drying of the river at the Ruaha Park HQ.
  5. Alert One estimated approximatley one month before Alert Two was announced on August 15, 2024, the first alert for the authority to intervene and reduce abstraction by farmers and other users during the off-season for irrigated rice.

You can use the buttons to follow the time series of reduced flow in the Ruaha River in 2024 at Mtera.