FIGURE4 Areas affected by El Niño
Tropic of Cancer
Equator
Tropic of Capricorn
Key
0
2500
5000 km
Wet
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Warm
Source: MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane
CASESTUDY Managing water in the Nile Basin, North Africa The Nile River is the longest river in the world at 6695 km long. It flows northward through the tropics and the highlands of eastern Africa and drains into the Mediterranean Sea in northern Africa. FIGURE6 shows how the Nile River flows through medium to extremely high water-stressed places. The Nile Basin (the Nile River and all its tributaries) covers an area of about 3.1 million square kilometres (almost the same area as the Northern Territory). The basin covers 10 per cent of the African continent. Ten countries share the Nile Basin: Burundi, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. Over 330 million people live there, and 160 million use the Nile’s water. Most people in the Nile Basin work in farming. The Nile’s flow helps generate power, especially in Ethiopia.
FIGURE5 Farming in the lower Nile relies heavily on river water.
282 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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