Kunene River

The Cunene, sometimes known as the Kunene, is a river in Southern Africa. It runs south from the Angolan highlands to the Namibian border. It then flows west along the border, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the region's few perennial rivers. It is approximately 1,050 kilometers (652 miles) long, with a drainage basin size of 106,560 square kilometers (41,143 square miles). At its mouth, its mean annual discharge is 174 m3/s. The Epupa Falls are located on the river. The Olushandja Dam dams a tributary of the river, the Etaka, and provides water to the Ruacana Power Station.

In the late 1990s, the Namibian government considered building the Epupa Project, a contentious hydroelectric dam on the Cunene River. The Namibian and Angolan governments announced plans to build the Orokawe dam in the Baynes Mountains in 2012. According to the indigenous Himba who would have been most impacted by the dam's construction, the project threatens the local ecology and hence the Himba's economic foundation. Traditional Himba chiefs issued a declaration to the African Union and the United Nations Human Rights Council in February 2012, titled "Declaration of the most affected Ovahimba, Ovatwa, Ovatjimba, and Ovazemba against the Orokawe Dam in the Baynes Mountains," outlining the traditional Himba chiefs' and communities' strong opposition to the dam.

Length: 1,050 km