White Nile

The White Nile flows through North and East Africa. It carries less water than the Blue Nile, the other major branch of the Nile, but it is longer, wider, and shallower. Its pale color comes from clay sediment suspended in the water. Strictly speaking, the White Nile begins at Lake No, where the Bahr al Jabal and Bahr el Ghazal rivers meet. More broadly, the name covers all the river sections that drain from Lake Victoria to the point where it joins the Blue Nile: the Victoria Nile (from Lake Victoria through Lake Kyoga to Lake Albert), then the Albert Nile (to the South Sudan border), and then the Mountain Nile, or Bahr-al-Jabal, down to Lake No. Sometimes the term also includes Lake Victoria’s headwaters; the most distant of these is about 3,700 kilometers from the Blue Nile.

The river’s longest feeder into Lake Victoria is the Kagera River, which enters the lake near Bukoba, Tanzania. Sources disagree on which tributary of the Kagera is longest, so the Nile’s ultimate source could be either the Ruvyironza in Burundi or the Nyabarongo in Rwanda. These two streams meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda–Tanzania border. At that spot, on 28–29 April 1994, about 250,000 Rwandans crossed the bridge into Tanzania in 24 hours—the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called it the largest and fastest refugee exodus in modern times. The Kagera then forms parts of the Rwanda–Tanzania and Tanzania–Uganda borders before flowing into Lake Victoria.

In Uganda, the river is first called the Victoria Nile. It begins at the outlet of Lake Victoria near Jinja, on the lake’s northern shore. Downstream from the Nalubaale and Kiira power stations, it passes over Bujagali Falls about 15 kilometers from Jinja, where the Bujagali Power Station is located. The river then flows northwest through Lake Kyoga and continues west to Lake Albert. At Karuma Falls, it passes under Karuma Bridge, built in 1963 to support the cotton industry. During the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency, this bridge was a key stop on the road to Gulu, where vehicles gathered in convoys before receiving a military escort north. In 2009, Uganda announced plans for a 750-megawatt hydropower project north of the bridge, scheduled for completion in 2016; the World Bank had approved funding for a smaller 200-megawatt plant, but Uganda chose the larger project, which it said it would fund internally if needed. Just before entering Lake Albert, the river narrows to just seven meters wide at Murchison Falls, marking its entry into the western branch of the East African Rift. It then flows into Lake Albert opposite the Blue Mountains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The stretch from Lake Kyoga to Lake Albert is sometimes called the Kyoga Nile.

From Lake Albert northward, the river is called the Albert Nile. It separates Uganda’s West Nile sub-region from the rest of the country. A bridge crosses the Albert Nile near its inlet in Nebbi District, but no other bridge exists on this section. A ferry connects roads between Adjumani and Moyo; otherwise, travel on the river is by small boat or canoe.

When the river enters South Sudan from Uganda, it becomes the Mountain Nile, or Bahr al-Jabal (Arabic for “Mountain River”). From Nimule near the Ugandan border, it passes through several rapids before reaching the Sudan plain and the vast Sudd swamp. It continues to Lake No, where it meets the Bahr el Ghazal and becomes the White Nile in the strict sense. An anabranch called the Bahr el Zeraf splits from the Bahr al-Jabal, flows through the Sudd, and later rejoins the White Nile. The Mountain Nile also cascades through narrow gorges and rapids, including the Fula (Fola) Rapids.

From Lake No, the White Nile flows east for about 120 kilometers to the mouth of the Sobat River. This section has a very gentle slope and contains many swamps and lagoons. When the Sobat is in flood, it carries heavy sediment, adding to the White Nile’s pale color. From Malakal, South Sudan’s second city, the river runs slowly but without swamps into Sudan and north to Khartoum. Downstream from Malakal lies Kodok, site of the 1898 Fashoda Incident, which marked the end of the Scramble for Africa. In Sudan, the river gives its name to the state of White Nile.