Saturday, October 20, 2007

RIVERS AND LAKES

RIVERS AND LAKES

About two-thirds of Nigeria lies in the watershed of the Niger River,
which empties in to the Atlantic at the Niger Delta, and its major
tributaries: the Benue in the northeast, the Kaduna in the west, the Sokoto
in the northwest, and the Anambra in the southeast. The Niger is
Africa’s third longest river and fifth largest in terms of discharge. Several
rivers of the watershed flow directly to the Atlantic, notably the
Cross in southeastern Nigeria and the Ogun, Oshun, and Osse in the
southwest.

Several rivers of northeastern Nigeria, including the Komadugu Gana and
its tributaries, flow into Lake Chad. The lake rests in the center of
a major drainage basin at the point where Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and
Cameroon meet. Kainji Lake, created in the late 1960s by the construction
of the Kainji Dam on the Niger River, is Nigeria’s only other large
lake. Nigeria’s rivers and lakes have not fared well under development.
Sensitive wetland habitats, home to many species of birds and other
animals, have been cleared for irrigation, and their flood-dependent
ecosystems have been damaged by dam construction

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