Flood Levels and Timing
- See also Climate of Zambia
The peak of the flood occurs on the floodplain about 3 months after the peak of the rainy season in January-February. The flood usually peaks in April, and recedes in May to July, when grasses quickly grow on the exposed plain. At the river's lowest water in November the floodplain still contains about 537 km² of lagoons, swamps and channels. The flood leaves behind a fertile grey to black soil overlaying the Kalahari sands, enriched by siltdeposited by the flood as well as humus from vegetation killed by the initial flood, and from decaying aquatic plants left to dry out in the mud. It provides a good soil, but in the late dry season it bakes hard in the heat of the sun.
As the floods recede, water is left behind in lagoons, swamps, and oxbow lakes.
Read more about this topic: Barotse Floodplain
Famous quotes containing the words flood, levels and/or timing:
“Men hold themselves cheap and vile; and yet a man is a fagot of thunderbolts. All the elements pour through his system: he is the flood of the flood, and fire of the fire; he feels the antipodes and the pole, as drops of his blood: they are the extension of his personality.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all. Almsgiving leaves a man just where he was before. Aid restores him to society as an individual worthy of all respect and not as a man with a grievance. Almsgiving is the generosity of the rich; social aid levels up social inequalities. Charity separates the rich from the poor; aid raises the needy and sets him on the same level with the rich.”
—Eva Perón (1919–1952)
“A great man always considers the timing before he acts.”
—Chinese proverb.