FIGURE 4-1 Major rivers of Africa.

SOURCE: From de Wit, M., and J. Stankiewicz. 2006. Change in Surface Water Supply Across Africa with Predicted Climate Change. Science 311:1917-1920. Reprinted with permission from AAAS.

one-fourth of Africa’s water resources. East of the Gulf of Guinea, the countries of humid, tropical central Africa are served by two major rivers—the Congo and the Ooguué—that make up almost half the continent’s water resources. In eastern Africa, the climate ranges from semi-arid to tropical humid, and the major river in this subregion is the Nile. Although the water resources in this region are limited, Africa’s largest lake, Lake Victoria, is there. The climate in southern Africa is diverse, from subtropical humid to arid. The Zambezi, Limpopo, and Orange Rivers serve the region, but the water resources are modest, and some groundwater reserves are not renewable (FAO, 2003), although two large inland lakes, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika, are in the region.