Mazowe River

Mazowe River in the Luenha River catchment (center)

The Mazowe River (previously called Mazoe River) is a river in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, where it is called Rio Mazoe or Rio Mazoé.[1]

The river rises north of Harare, flows north and then northeast, where it forms part of the border with Mozambique and joins the Luenha River, a tributary of the Zambezi River. The Mazowe has a catchment basin of about 39,000 square kilometres (15,058 sq mi).[2] In 1920, the Mazowe Dam was constructed on the river forty kilometres north of Harare to irrigate citrus farms.[3]

The river and its tributaries are a popular site for gold panners and small placer operations,[4] although in the wet season, the Mazowe becomes a raging torrent, often breaking its banks and causing damage to local communities and farms.

  1. ^ Tracks4Africa - Travel Africa Informed
  2. ^ Chikozho, Claudious (2008). "Stakeholder Participatory Processes and Dialogue Platforms in the Mazowe River Catchment, Zimbabwe" (PDF). African Studies Quarterly. 10 (2/3): 27–44, page 33.
  3. ^ Kent Rusmussen, R. & Rubert, S. (1990) Historical Dictionary of Zimbabwe, The Scarecrow Press.
  4. ^ "EMA bemoans the menace of illegal mining".