World Water Day : The Source of the Nile
The Nile is the longest river in Africa, and its source has been debated for centuries. The British explorer John Hanning Speke "discovered" the source of the Nile at Ripon Falls (now submerged under the Owen Falls Dam) on Lake Victoria in 1862. But the debate has never been settled: is the source at Ripon Falls, or is it the Kagera River, which flows into Lake Victoria from Burundi and Rwanda? AHA! moment: Uganda built a monument at the "Source of the Nile" in Jinja, and tourists come from all over the world to see it. But the truth is that the Nile starts in the highlands of Burundi and Rwanda, flows through the Kagera River into Lake Victoria, and then out through Ripon Falls. The source is not a single point : it is an entire river system. The Ugandan government, however, prefers the Jinja version because it brings tourists.