The Okavango River is a river in southwest Africa. It begins in Angola, where it is known as the Cubango River. Further south it forms part of the border between Angola and Namibia, and then flows into Botswana.
Before it enters Botswana, the river drops 4 m in a series of rapids known as Popa Falls.
Unusually, the Okavango does not have an outlet in the sea. Instead, it empties into a swamp in the Kalahari Desert, known as the Okavango Delta. Part of the river's flow fills Lake Ngami. World famous for its remarkable wildlife, the Okavango is also home to about 100,000 native people who are caught between the interests of tourist operators and insurgents in the neighbouring Caprivi Strip.
PopaFalls is a misnomer as the 'falls' are really only a series of rapids on the Okavango river.
The PopaFalls Resort is situated on the banks of the mighty Kavango River at the last rapids before the river enters Botswana and the Okavango Delta.
Due to ists situation the area around PopaFalls is popular with self drivers who are including a visit to the Okavango Delta on their holiday in Namibia.
The Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy is studying the feasibility of a 30-megawatt (MW) hydropower dam on the Okavango River at PopaFalls, less than 50 kilometers upstream from the Okavango Delta in Botswana, according to the Namibian newspaper The Windhoek Observer (9 September 2000).
PopaFalls is the centerpiece of the Caprivi Game Park, which is slated to become the Bwabwata National Park, and provides habitat to several herds of hippo and many elephant and other wildlife that come to the river for water and vegetation.
Thousands of tourists visit PopaFalls each year and support several lodges in the area, including one that is run by a community of indigenous Barakwena people, and bring scarce income to this undeveloped corner of the country.
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