Pungwe River

Pungwe River (Portuguese: Rio Púnguè) is a 400 km long river in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It rises below Mount Nyangani in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and then flows eastward through the Manica and Sofala provinces of Mozambique. It then empties to the Mozambique Channel in Beira, forming a large estuary. [1] It is one of major rivers of Mozambique and often causes floods.

Beira at the mouth of the Pungwe River, as seen from the International Space Station
The Pungwe River flooding as seen from NASA MODIS satellite in 2010.
The Pungwe River in a normal state as seen from NASA MODIS satellite in 2009.

Pungwe basin

Administratively, the Pungwe Basin covers parts of Sofala and Manica provinces in Mozambique, and a large part of Mutasa District in Zimbabwe. A small portion of the basin in Zimbabwe falls in Nyanga District. The basin population in Mozambique is estimated at 1,081,000 persons and that for Zimbabwe at 95,869 persons. [2]

Water supply systems

Beira metropolitan area in Mozambique water supply is from Pungwe River. The 2004 water demand from the Beira/Dondo water supply, which including the Mutua and Mafambisse areas, was estimated at 25,339 m3/d.

The city of Mutare is supplied by Pungwe River water through an inter-catchment transfer facility. The quantities transferred are limited to a maximum of 0.7 cubic meters persecond by the provisions of a water permit and system design. In addition, on 27 September 1995, it was agreed in a meeting of the Mozambique and Zimbabwe Ministers responsible for Water Affairs that water could be abstracted from the Pungwe River to supply the city of Mutare, with an upper limit of 1 cubic meters per second. Consequently, a fixed abstraction of 60,480 cubic meters per day by Mutare city has been adopted as water demand from the Pungwe River. The Mutasa Rural District is also expected to draw water from the Pungwe pipeline to supply villages along its route. [3]

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Coordinates: 19°51′55″S 34°49′07″E / 19.865278°S 34.818611°E