Rivers of South Africa

Rivers Of South Africa

This is a list of rivers of South Africa. A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including stream, creek, brook, rivulet and rill; there is no general rule that defines what can be called a river. An exception to this is the stream. In some countries or communities a stream may be defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; one example is burn in Scotland and North-east England, in South Africa, the Afrikaans term spruit, (cf. sprout) is most often used. Sometimes a river is said to be larger than a creek, but this is not always the case, because of vagueness in the languages. In South Africa, it is quite common to find the Afrikaans word -rivier to be part of the name. The Zulu word amanzi (water) also forms part of some river names.

A river is part of the hydrological cycle. Water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (i.e., from glaciers).