Zambezi km from the sea the Zambezi receives the drainage of Lake Malawi through the Shire River. On approaching the Indian Ocean, the river splits up into a delta. Each of the four primary distributaries, Kongone, Luabo and Timbwe, is obstructed by a sand bar. A more northerly branch, called the Chinde mouth, has a minimum depth at low water of 2 m at the entrance and 4 m further in, and is the branch used for navigation. 100 km further north is a river called the Quelimane, after the town at its mouth. This stream, which is silting up, receives
Zambezi River Authority Zambezi River Authority also plays a role in managing the use of water from Lake Kariba for irrigation and for domestic, industrial and institutional use. There has been tension between the countries that border the river. In the early 1990s, Zimbabwe proposed to build a pipeline to carry water south to supply the city of Bulawayo. Botswana also proposed to carry water south to Gaborone through an extension to the North-South Carrier (NSC). Some of the NSC water could be shared with South Africa. These projects raised concern with downstream countries threatened by loss of water. The question of claims