Luanda - Angolan head of State João Lourenço Tuesday discussed issues related to the studies on the potential of the Okavango River Basin with the chairman of the board of National Geographic, Jill Tiefenthaler.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Tiefenthaler said that the aim of the studies was to preserve and protect the river basin in Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia.
The meeting, she said, discussed the alignment, protection, preservation and conservation of the Angolan river, which supplies water to millions of inhabitants in the region, a project that National Geographic has been implementing since 2018.
"With this, we intend to strengthen our cooperation to develop the activity that has to do with the scientific area and expedition of states on the baselines of water for human development in that region," he explained.
The Okavango River Basin covers a hydrologically active area of around 323,192 square kilometres, shared by four southern African countries, namely Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia.
Its main flow comes from the sub-humid and semi-arid plains of Cuando Cubango province, before concentrating along the banks between Namibia and Angola, flowing into a fan or delta at a height of 980 metres.
Several rivers converge into a single river, whose waters flow southwards and eastwards, branching off again when it flows into the Okavango Delta, where it ends in one of the largest inland freshwater concentrations on the planet.
The river rises in the north of Cuando Cubango province, runs for around 250 kilometres, passes through the interior of the city of Menongue and crosses it from north to south.
It is a river with characteristics, a permanent flow, with different species of fish, otters and alligators in abundance. AFL/ADR/DAN/NIC
