Starting in the late 1990s, insufficient rains left Botswana's Boteti river dry year after year. But in September 2010, water once again flowed. Much of the rain that falls on the highlands of Angola makes a long, slow journey to Botswana's Okavango delta. If more water flows into the delta than it can hold, some continues southward through the Boteti. On September 29, as the Okavango delta overflowed, the Boteti flows toward the south-east before turning northward into the expansive salt pans of Makgadikgadi. This image shows the river stopping short of Makgadikgadi, which lies to the east. Frank Eckhardt of the University of Cape Town, says the presence of any water in the river valley had become unusual by 2010, and some observers thought the Boteti had died
Photograph: ALI/EO-1/Nasa
The Guardian
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