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30-465: The Swakop River, along with its main tributary Khan , is one of the largest temporary water-bearing rivers in the dry western part of Namibia. It is 460 km (290 mi) long and has a 30,100 km (11,600 sq mi) large catchment area (including its tributaries). The name comes from the Khoekhoe phrase Tsoa-xaub , from tsoa 'anus‘ and xaub 'excrement'. The name derives from

60-502: A catchment area of 30,100 km extending from the mouth into the Atlantic Ocean at Swakopmund over Otjimbingwe and in the east to about 50 km from Okahandja , and in the south to Khomas Highlands outside Windhoek . The highest point of the watershed is located at 2,480 m. Annual rainfall varies from 0 mm in the lower reaches up to 475 mm in the eastern Khomas Highlands. Rainfall exceeds 300 mm per year in 39% of

90-400: A new river, to be given its own name, perhaps one already known to the people who live upon its banks. Conversely, explorers approaching a new land from the sea encounter its rivers at their mouths, where they name them on their charts, then, following a river upstream, encounter each tributary as a forking of the stream to the right and to the left, which then appear on their charts as such; or

120-700: Is governed by a municipal council that has seven seats. In the 2010 local authority election in Okahandja, SWAPO won with approximately 62% of the vote. Of the five other parties seeking votes in the election, Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) received approximately 13% of the vote, followed by the United Democratic Front (UDF, 8%), the United People's Movement (UPM, 7%), National Unity Democratic Organization (NUDO, 6%) and Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA, 2%). The 2015 local authority election

150-464: Is growing rapidly. It stood at just over 14,000 as measured by the 2001 Population and Housing Census, and is estimated to have surpassed 24,000 in 2012. Von Bach Dam is situated outside of Okahandja. It provides the majority of Windhoek 's water. An open-air curio market attracts tourists, and the town serves as the administrative centre for the Herero people . Okahandja Railway Station , situated on

180-600: Is often salty due to soil salinity . On the lower reaches of the river, flooding has become ever more increasing, due to increased land use of the Swakop gallery forests . This contributes to a stronger and more rapid runoff and increased erosion of the Swakop Marshlands . Because of its size and scope, the Swakop has a very diverse catchment area. 29% of the area is in highveld savanna , 28% in thornveld savanna, 34% in semidesert and savanna transition zone, and 9% in

210-631: The Langer Heinrich mine , in the lower reaches of the Swakop, and the Rössing Mine at Khan use enormous quantities of water that further lower the water table. In addition, it is also often claimed that radioactive dust across the Khan gets into the Swakop, and therefore the vegetables cultivated there are contaminated by radioactive materials. The Swakop Bridge in Swakopmund is a notable man-made sight near

240-557: The Windhoek — Swakopmund line, was built in 1902 during Imperial Germany's colonial rule of German South West Africa . Today it belongs to the Trans-Namib railway network. In the 1870s Rhenish missionaries established the first school. The Augustineum School was reopened at Okahandja on 9 November 1905; it was later moved to Windhoek . Today Okahandja has six primary schools and two high schools. Namwater Vocational, situated outside

270-536: The Swakop River valley is found practically only in the sparsely populated lower reaches and is limited to antelope , smaller predators and birds. Animals such as elephants , rhinos , lions and other big cats are no longer to be found. Unlike the rest of the dry rivers in western Namibia, there are large human settlements in the basin of the Swakop River, such as the towns of Usakos , Karibib , Otjimbingwe , Okahandja and Namibia's capital, Windhoek , so that

300-518: The area have dropped about 0.3 m further due to the presence of two big dams built on the Swakop River. Notwithstanding the river’s irregular flow, some agriculture is undertaken in the Swakop River valley. Thus, the region is well known for its fresh produce, especially tomatoes , asparagus and olives . There are some fears of salt and uranium (possibly natural, possibly from the Rössing uranium mine ) endangering this farming industry. The Swakop drains

330-413: The catchment area, and up to 80% of the catchment experiences annual rainfall above 100 mm. The Von Bach Dam near Okahandja and Swakoppoort Dam west of Gross Barmen in the upper reaches of the Swakop are of great importance for the water supply of Central Namibia. Like all rivers, the Swakop also has a number of major sources and major wetlands in the lower reaches. Existing groundwater, however,

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360-547: The central Namib Desert . In the Highlands a more or less dense bush vegetation prevails. In the arid lower reaches there is a more limited flora in the Swakop River valley itself, with the typical gallery vegetation from ana trees ( Faidherbia albida ), tamarisk ( Tamarix ), camel thorn ( Acacia erioloba ), Salvadora , various fig species, Euclea and also tobacco ( Nicotiana spp.), Jimsonweed ( Datura ) and mesquite ( Prosopis spp.) as invasive species . Wildlife in

390-672: The district capital of the Okahandja electoral constituency . It is known as the Garden Town of Namibia . It is located 70 km north of Windhoek on the B1 road . It was founded around 1800, by two local groups, the Herero and the Nama . Okahandja means the place where two rivers (Okakango and Okamita) flow into each other to form one wide one in Otjiherero . A German pastor, Heinrich Schmelen , became

420-531: The first European to visit the town in 1827. In 1844, two missionaries were permanently assigned to the town, Heinrich Kleinschmidt and Hugo Hahn . A church dates from this period. A military post was established at the initiative of Theodor Leutwein in 1894, and it is this date that is officially recognized as the town's founding. A number of important historic Namibian people are buried in Okahandja, among them Maharero , Jan Jonker Afrikaner , Hosea Kutako and Clemens Kapuuo . The population of Okahandja

450-515: The first-order tributary being typically the least in size. For example, a second-order tributary would be the result of two or more first-order tributaries combining to form the second-order tributary. Another method is to list tributaries from mouth to source, in the form of a tree structure , stored as a tree data structure . Okahandja Okahandja is a city of 45,159 inhabitants in Otjozondjupa Region , central Namibia , and

480-429: The groundwater in agriculture and the high water consumption in cities result in the lowering of the water table . This leads, particularly in the lower reaches, to the drying up of many springs as well as to the death of the gallery vegetation. Due to agricultural practices, erosion has greatly increased, so that more and more valuable soil is lost and the intensity of the Swakop floods increases. Uranium mines such as

510-451: The handedness is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream. For instance, Steer Creek has a left tributary which is called Right Fork Steer Creek. These naming conventions are reflective of the circumstances of a particular river's identification and charting: people living along the banks of a river, with a name known to them, may then float down the river in exploration, and each tributary joining it as they pass by appears as

540-424: The joining of tributaries. The opposite to a tributary is a distributary , a river or stream that branches off from and flows away from the main stream. Distributaries are most often found in river deltas . Right tributary , or right-bank tributary , and left tributary , or left-bank tributary , describe the orientation of the tributary relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from

570-599: The local Okahandja Rate Payers' Association (ORPA, 574 votes), the Landless People's Movement (LPM, an opposition party formed in 2016, 377 votes), and the UDF (290 votes). Okahandja offers the following sports codes; Soccer, Netball, Basketball, Tennis, Horse Raising, Dancing, Running, Gym, Spin & Drifting, Radio Helicopters... Okahandja United FC competes in the Namibia Premier Football League as of

600-462: The main town, is the only institute of higher education in Okahandja. The National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) is today situated in Okahandja. NIED was created after independence as the institute from where a new national system of education was created, replacing the previous racist system of apartheid. Previously the German school Regierungsschule Okahandja was in the city. Okahandja

630-455: The observation of the flow of large amounts of brownish sludge that discharge into the Atlantic Ocean with the rains. The area around the river mouth and the surrounding dunes are also known for rich bird life and some unusual plant species (like the Welwitschia ) that use the regular fog drifting in from the sea to sustain themselves in the absence of other moisture. Groundwater levels in

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660-462: The opposite bank before approaching the confluence. An early tributary is a tributary that joins the main stem river closer to its source than its mouth, that is, before the river's midpoint ; a late tributary joins the main stem further downstream, closer to its mouth than to its source, that is, after the midpoint. In the United States, where tributaries sometimes have the same name as

690-476: The perspective of looking downstream, that is, facing the direction the water current of the main stem is going. In a navigational context, if one were floating on a raft or other vessel in the main stream, this would be the side the tributary enters from as one floats past; alternately, if one were floating down the tributary, the main stream meets it on the opposite bank of the tributary. This information may be used to avoid turbulent water by moving towards

720-427: The place where the river empties into the ocean. Tributary A tributary , or an affluent , is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ( main stem or "parent" ), river, or a lake . A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean . Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they flow, drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater , leading

750-466: The population in the catchment area is more than 200,000 persons. While in the upper reaches of the river the farms are often far from the river and extensive grazing is operated, the dams and the high groundwater level along the entire Swakop River valley make intensive farming and even gardening, such as the cultivation of asparagus in Swakopmund Goanikontes, possible. The extensive use of

780-643: The river into which they feed, they are called forks . These are typically designated by compass direction. For example, the American River in California receives flow from its North, Middle, and South forks. The Chicago River 's North Branch has the East, West, and Middle Fork; the South Branch has its South Fork, and used to have a West Fork as well (now filled in). Forks are sometimes designated as right or left. Here,

810-418: The smaller stream designated the little fork, the larger either retaining its name unmodified, or receives the designation big . Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river and ending with those nearest to the mouth of the river . The Strahler stream order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second, third and higher orders, with

840-432: The streams are seen to diverge by the cardinal direction (north, south, east, or west) in which they proceed upstream, sometimes a third stream entering between two others is designated the middle fork; or the streams are distinguished by the relative height of one to the other, as one stream descending over a cataract into another becomes the upper fork, and the one it descends into, the lower ; or by relative volume:

870-463: The water out into an ocean. The Irtysh is a chief tributary of the Ob river and is also the longest tributary river in the world with a length of 4,248 km (2,640 mi). The Madeira River is the largest tributary river by volume in the world with an average discharge of 31,200 m /s (1.1 million cu ft/s). A confluence , where two or more bodies of water meet, usually refers to

900-580: Was again won by SWAPO which gained five seats and 2,572 votes. One seat each went to the DTA and the UDF with 236 and 213 votes, respectively. SWAPO also won the 2020 local authority election but lost its absolute majority in the municipal council. It obtained 1,865 votes and gained three seats. One seat each went to the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC, an opposition party formed in August 2020, 654 votes),

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