Nevėžis River

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For other uses, see Nevėžis.

Nevėžis River
Nevėžis in Kėdainiai district municipality
Origin	Lithuania
Mouth	Neman River
Basin countries	Lithuania
Length	209 km / 130 mi
Avg. discharge	33.2 m³/s / 1,170 ft³/s
Basin area	6140 km² / 2371 mi²

Nevėžis River (pronunciation (help·info)) is the 6th longest river in Lithuania and one of the main tributaries to the Neman River. Its length is 209 km (130 miles) and it flows only in Lithuania. It makes it the second largest river in Lithuania, after Šventoji River, that flows only in Lithuania. It starts in the Anykščiai district municipality and first flows northwest, but then at Panevėžys turns to southwest direction and passing Kėdainiai city flows into the Neman River just west of Kaunas near Raudondvaris.

1 Name
2 Natural environment
3 Canals
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Name

There is a popular misconception that the name Nevėžis means "a river without crayfishes" because vėžys is Lithuanian word for crayfish and ne means "no." In fact, Nevėžis is known for its fish and crayfish. The name actually comes from a Sanskrit word vaagh meaning "sough." A negation ne- was added because the river is very slow and silent. The name is accurate because Nevėžis has the lowest elevation among rivers in Lithuania. Thus it makes many meanders.

The river gave name to many things including Panevėžys, the 5th largest city in Lithuania. Its name means "[Town] near Nevėžis." FK Nevėžis and KK Nevėžis are also named after the river. Nevėžis is important in Lithuanian culture because it flows through the middle of Lithuania. During the middle ages, the river was considered to be a natural border between two regions of Lithuania: Samogitia and Aukštaitija.

[edit] Natural environment

Nevėžis has about 70 tributaries. The largest are:

left: Alantas, Juoda, Upytė, Linkava, Obelis, Barupė, Gynia;
right: Juosta, Kiršinas, Liaudė, Kruostas, Dotnuvėlė, Smilga, Šušvė (14th longest river in Lithuania), Aluona, Strūna.

In 1992, Krekenava Regional Park was established in order to preserve middle Nevėžis ecosystem and natural landscape. The park is unique because it breeds and tries to protect from extinction wisents, the European bison.

Even with two canals supplying Nevėžis with water, it becomes very shallow during a hotter summer. Regularly it is 4-9 meters deep. In more recent years, a number of grass carps was introduced to the river for aquatic weed control. Nevėžis, due to low level of water, slow current, and abundant fertilizers from the fields, was becoming more and more overgrown with weeds. The hopes are that the grass carps would help to control the process. Critics argued that the fish would not survive in relative cold climate. However, local fishermen still catch carps introduced three years ago.

[edit] Canals

Nevėžis is connected with two other large rivers by canals. In order to reduce floods in the Lėvuo River, Sanžilė Canal was dug in 1930. A draft to connect these rivers was first written in 1797. The location was very convenient: about 9,000 years ago Nevėžis was a tributary to Lėvuo. The land between the rivers was low and there was a small Sanžilė rivulet which could serve as the basis for the new canal. In the 19th century Neman delta belonged to Germans. This was an obstacle in trading. The Russian Empire was looking for ways to direct ships from the Neman River directly to the Riga port. The plan was abandoned because of insufficient funds. The idea was revisited again in 1914, the preparations for construction started but were interrupted by the World War I. After reclamation of Lėvuo's origin, after heavy rains Lėvuo would flood as many as twenty villages. It was decided to dig an 8 km length canal. In 1961-63 another canal connecting Nevėžis with Šventoji River was finished. It is 12 km in length. There is a pump station near Kavarskas to supply the canal with water.