Malagarasi River

The Malagarasi is the second-longest river in Tanzania, at {{convert|475|km}}.{{cite book|last1=Kisangani|first1=Emizet F.|last2=Bobb|first2=F. Scott|title=Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FvAWPTaRvFYC&pg=PA299|accessdate=30 May 2012|year=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-5761-2|page=299}}{{cite book|author=Elf-Aquitaine (Company)|title=Bulletin des centres de recherches exploration-production Elf-Aquitaine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3QcAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=30 May 2012|year=1992|publisher=Société nationale Elf-Aquitaine (Production)}}

The source of the river is near the Tanzania-Burundi border.{{Cite web|url=http://www.geo.arizona.edu/nyanza/pdf/ShickFlaccus.pdf|title=Malagarasi River Delta Sedimentology: Evidence of Lake Level Changes in Lake Tanganyika|author1=Shick, Kate |author2=Flaccus, Kathy |publisher=Geology Department of the University of Arizona|accessdate=30 May 2012}} The first {{convert|80|km}} of the river form the international boundary between Tanzania and Burundi. Several tributaries from the Burundi highlands join its right bank. After the confluence with the Lumpungu River, the Malagarasi enters Tanzania, makes a circle and empties into the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika about {{convert|25|miles}} south of Kigoma, near Ilagala.{{cite map|title= Maps|publisher=Google Maps}} It is one of the lake's primary inflows. Moyowosi River is the principal tributary, along with its affluent the Nikongo River;{{cite book|last1=Hughes|first1=R. H.|last2=Hughes|first2=J. S.|title=A Directory of African Wetlands|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VLjafeXa3gMC&pg=PA244|accessdate=28 May 2012|year=1992|publisher=IUCN|isbn=978-2-88032-949-5|pages=244–}} other tributaries include Ugalla River, Gombe River, Ruchugi River, Lumpungu River,{{cite book|last1=Brownlie|first1=Ian|last2=Burns|first2=Ian R.|title=African Boundaries: A Legal and Diplomatic Encyclopaedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A8Du4k0udx4C&pg=PA748|accessdate=30 May 2012|year=1979|publisher=C. Hurst|isbn=978-0-903983-87-7|page=748}} and Nguya River. It is characterized as a low stream river,{{cite book|last1=Klerkx|first1=J.|last2=Imanackunov|first2=Beishen|title=Lake Issyk-Kul: Its Natural Environment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TT9q-vcN8IC&pg=PA231|accessdate=28 May 2012|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4020-0900-6|pages=231–}} and its drainage includes four biotopes: swampy areas, river channels, a flowing river with a few moderate rapids, and a large double-branched delta.{{cite book|last=Thieme|first=Michele L.|title=Freshwater Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar: A Conservation Assessment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3nkL9NqqlscC&pg=PA197|accessdate=28 May 2012|date=5 April 2005|publisher=Island Press|isbn=978-1-55963-365-9|pages=197–}}

The flow of the river ranges dramatically between the annual cycle of wet and dry seasons, and at times may be susceptible to flooding or reduced to a small stream; flow is also affected by local agriculture and deforestation which increase the level of sediments within the river. At Mberagule, the flow of the river has been gauged to be 6.9 cubic kilometers per year. About {{convert|80|km}} from the mouth, the river flows through the Moyowosi swamplands, an area of "extensive swamps and floodplains" and a "marshy labyrinth".{{cite book|last1=Kamukala|first1=G. L.|last2=Crafter|first2=S. A.|title=Wetlands of Tanzania: Proceedings of a Seminar on the Wetlands of Tanzania, Morogoro, Tanzania, 27-29 November, 1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kbLsJa81gpgC&pg=PA34|accessdate=30 May 2012|year=1993|publisher=IUCN Wetlands Programme|isbn=978-2-8317-0185-1|page=34}}{{cite book|last=Lambrecht|first=Frank L.|title=In the Shade of an Acacia Tree: Memoirs of a Health Officer in Africa, 1945-1959|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_TWftBeiEFEC&pg=PA217|accessdate=30 May 2012|year=1991|publisher=American Philosophical Society|isbn=978-0-87169-194-1|page=217}} It passes through the Dodoma Belt, a geological area of Archaean and Proterozoic age Precambrian crystalline rocks.

With a basin area of {{convert|130,000|km2}}, the Malagarasi has the largest watershed of all of the rivers flowing into Lake Tanganyika. The Malagarasi watershed constitutes 30% of the Lake Tanganyika's total watershed area.Director of Wildlife, Wildlife Division of the United Republic of Tanzania (1999). "The Malagarasi-Muyovozi Wetlands". Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands, 21-08-1999. Accessed 18 September 2019. [https://rsis.ramsar.org/RISapp/files/RISrep/TZ1024RIS.pdf]

The Malagarasi watershed is bounded on the north by the watershed of Lake Victoria, on the east by the closed basin of the Southern Eastern Rift, to the south by the closed basin of Lake Rukwa, and to the east by Lake Tanganyika."Malagarasi-Moyowosi". Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (FEOW). Accessed 18 September 2019. [http://www.feow.org/ecoregions/details/543]

Most of the basin is miombo woodland, with Brachystegia spiciformis and Julbernardia globiflora as the dominant trees."Malagarasi-Moyowosi". Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (FEOW). Accessed 18 September 2019. [http://www.feow.org/ecoregions/details/543] There are extensive areas of flooded grassland in the central Malagarasi-Moyowosi basin, and along the middle Ugalla River to the southwest."Zambezian Flooded Grasslands". WWF ecoregion profile, accessed 18 September 2019. [https://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at0907]

According to ecologist Rosemary Lowe-McConnell, "the Malagarasi and the Rungwa River are assumed to be relict headwaters of the extended pre-rift Zaire system".{{cite book|last=Lévêque|first=C.|title=Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation: The Freshwater Fish of Tropical Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_ABrmnsKY4C&pg=PA107|accessdate=28 May 2012|date=13 May 1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57033-6|pages=107–}} The Malagarasi pre-dates Lake Tanganyika and was in pre-rift times a tributary of the Congo River to its west. Lake Tanganyika has since said to have "undergone both transgression and regression, depositing new sediments, altering the delta, and changing the course of the river". Over its history, the lake level has altered dramatically between {{convert|100|and|200|m}}; historical accounts from the late nineteenth century indicate that it was about {{convert|10|m}} higher than it is today.

==Culture==

Local tribes have nicknamed the Malagarasi as "the river of bad spirits".{{cite book|last=Grant|first=Richard|title=Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ivN5wQTCNt4C&pg=PA339|accessdate=4 June 2012|date=25 October 2011|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4391-5414-4|pages=339–}}

In the late 19th century, the Wavinza people, who ran the river's ferry service from the left bank, avoided assimilation with the Wanyamwezi people because of the natural barrier formed by the Malagarasi.{{cite book|title=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ivYRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA8|accessdate=4 June 2012|edition=Public domain|year=1883|publisher=Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|pages=8–}} Also on the other bank were the Wangoni (Watutu Zulus).{{cite book|last=Newman|first=James L.|title=Paths Without Glory: Richard Francis Burton in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LtCt8aECfu0C&pg=PA105|accessdate=4 June 2012|year=2010|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|isbn=978-1-59797-287-1|pages=105–}} Henry Morton Stanley, who considered missionaries important to Africa's "civilizing process", stated that missionaries could follow the Malagarasi and participate in "conversion-tours to Uvinza, Uha, and Ugala".{{cite book|last=Newman|first=James L.|title=Imperial Footprints: Henry Morton Stanley's African Journeys|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0qKyxaJMVF0C&pg=PA81|accessdate=4 June 2012|date=1 November 2004|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|isbn=978-1-57488-597-2|pages=81–}}

The tree species in the Malagarasi basin include Albizia gummifera, Bridelia micrantha, Cyperus papyrus, Diospyros mespiliformis, Ficus sycomorus, Ficus verruculosa, Isoberlinia spp., Khaya senegalensis, Parkia filicoidea, Phoenix reclinata, Syzygium cordatum, and Syzygium owariense. The prominent grasses in the valley grasslands are species of Hyparrhenia, Themeda, and Echinochloa.{{cite book|author=Tanzania Society|title=Tanzania notes and records|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDVzAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=30 May 2012|year=1980|publisher=Tanzania Society|pages=96–100}}

The Malagarasi sardine (Mesobola spinifer) is endemic to the river.{{cite web|url=http://www.fishbase.org/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=11597|title=Mesobola spinifer (Bailey & Matthes, 1971) Malagarasi sardine |last=Seegers|first=L. |date=November 15, 2011|publisher=FishBase|accessdate=29 May 2012}} The Malagarasi contains several fish species which occur in the Congo River Basin but not in Lake Tanganyika. Giant freshwater Mbu pufferfish, however, occur in both the Central and Upper Zaire Basin and the Malagarasi River.{{cite book|last=Davies|first=Bryan Robert|title=The Ecology of River Systems|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zDjMyk4oDBkC&pg=PA218|accessdate=30 May 2012|date=31 July 1986|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-90-6193-540-7|page=218}}

The Malagarasi-Muyovozi Wetlands lie in the middle of the basin, at 1200 meters elevation at the confluence of the Malagarasi with the Gombe, Muyovozi, Ugalla, and other tributary rivers. The wetland includes {{convert|250,000|ha}} of dry-season lakes and open water including Sagara and Nyamagoma lakes, and {{convert|200,000|ha}} of permanent papyrus swamp. Seasonally-flooded grasslands on the surrounding floodplain vary seasonally and with annual rainfall, and can cover up to {{convert|1.5|e6ha}}.Director of Wildlife, Wildlife Division of the United Republic of Tanzania (1999). "The Malagarasi-Muyovozi Wetlands". Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands, 21-08-1999. Accessed 18 September 2019. [https://rsis.ramsar.org/RISapp/files/RISrep/TZ1024RIS.pdf]

The papyrus swamps are dominated by the sedge Cyperus papyrus and the grass Oryza barthii. The seasonally-flooded grasslands include Hyparrhenia rufa and Echinochloa pyramidalis, with Hyparrhenia dominant in the least-flooded areas, Echinochloa in more frequently-flooded areas, and Vossia nearest the permanent wetlands.Director of Wildlife, Wildlife Division of the United Republic of Tanzania (1999). "The Malagarasi-Muyovozi Wetlands". Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands, 21-08-1999. Accessed 18 September 2019. [https://rsis.ramsar.org/RISapp/files/RISrep/TZ1024RIS.pdf]

The middle and upper reaches of the Ugalla River include a seasonally-inundated floodplain {{convert|120|km}} long and up to {{convert|50|km}} wide. The floodplain supports extensive grasslands, dominated by the grasses Echinochloa haploclada, Themeda triandra, Setaria spp., Andropogon spp., Eragrostis spp., Digitaria spp., and Sporobolus spp. The floodplains include scattered trees including Combretum fragrans, C. obovatum and C. purpureiflorum, groves of the palm Borassus aethiopum, and small patches of closed-canopy forest on large termite mounds.Director of Wildlife, Wildlife Division of the United Republic of Tanzania (1999). "The Malagarasi-Muyovozi Wetlands". Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands, 21-08-1999. Accessed 18 September 2019. [https://rsis.ramsar.org/RISapp/files/RISrep/TZ1024RIS.pdf]

Vulnerable and endangered animals in the wetland include Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex), Wattled crane (Bugeranus carunculatus), African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), Sitatunga (Tragalephus spekii) and Central African slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops leptorhynchus). The wetlands are home to 50 species of fish, including the Dark stonebasher (Pollimyrus nigricans) and various endangered, endemic, and food species.Director of Wildlife, Wildlife Division of the United Republic of Tanzania (1999). "The Malagarasi-Muyovozi Wetlands". Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands, 21-08-1999. Accessed 18 September 2019. [https://rsis.ramsar.org/RISapp/files/RISrep/TZ1024RIS.pdf] Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) and hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) are common in the wetlands. Concerns have been raised over hippo poaching in the river basin by the Wanyahosa people, who prefer the meat over fish.{{cite book|author=Tanganyika Society|title=Tanganyika notes and records|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QutBAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=30 May 2012|year=1963|publisher=Tanganyika Society|page=210}}

The Malagarasi-Muyovozi Wetlands became a designated a Ramsar site on April 13, 2000.{{cite web|url=http://www.wetlands.org/RSIS/_COP9Directory/Directory/1TZ001.html|title=TANZANIA, UNITED REPUBLIC OF Ramsar Site 1024;(WI Site 1TZ001)|publisher=Wetlands International|accessdate=2 June 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416030414/http://www.wetlands.org/RSIS/_COP9Directory/Directory/1TZ001.html|archive-date=16 April 2013|url-status=dead}} It is the country's first Ramsar Site. At {{convert|35000|km2}} it is the world's third-largest Ramsar Site.{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:qr7qByMsiXQJ:www.ramsar.org/pdf/outreach_actionplan_tanzania_malagarasi_statusreport.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShv4AVoNWD24D-q21LMoToWI-GT-CNDr7AHmIPXrq5cvokJ3uwXF7fkhKyyhNcViDa_GqIg_ZWcvAijo-yD3l2Chg9UmY5mC95Fk3kTVmMRa1RAktPz7H95FsXryJDK3xBquJwh&sig=AHIEtbQnxPur0go__exKQF2GIS2F7he4nA|title=The Project for Sustainable and Integrated Management of the Malagarasi-Muyovozi Ramsar Site (SIMMORS)|date=March 2007|publisher=Ramsar|accessdate=2 June 2012}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/friel/tags/malagarasi/ Photographs on flickr]

{{Rivers of Burundi}}

{{Rivers of Tanzania}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malagarasi River}}

Category:Rivers of Tanzania

Category:Rivers of Burundi

Category:Burundi–Tanzania border

Category:Central Zambezian miombo woodlands

Category:Geography of Kigoma Region

Category:International rivers of Africa

Category:Tributaries of Lake Tanganyika

Category:Ramsar sites in Tanzania

Category:Zambezian flooded grasslands