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:
“Insurrection:... insurrection as soon as circumstances allow: insurrection, strenuous, ubiquitous: the insurrection of the masses: the holy war of the oppressed: the republic to make republicans: the people in action to initiate progress. Let the insurrection announce with its awful voice the decrees of God: let it clear and level the ground on which its own immortal structure shall be raised. Let it, like the Nile, flood all the country that it is destined to make fertile.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)
“The word which gives the key to the national vice is waste. And people who are wasteful are not wise, neither can they remain young and vigorous. In order to transmute energy to higher and more subtle levels one must first conserve it.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“A great man always considers the timing before he acts.”
—Chinese proverb.