World Wetlands Map
		Introduction Press Release Features World Wetlands Map Photo Gallery

"Never have I read nor heard say that such great amounts of fresh water could be found in this manner inside, and together with, salt water...and I declare that if this river does not come from Paradise itself, it surely must then come from an infinite land,". Thus wrote Christopher Columbus in his diary when he found the Orinoco delta on the first day of August 1498.

The oldest geological formation in South America is the Guiana Shield, in the north east of the continent. Its western waters flow into the Atlantic Ocean, forming what we know as the Orinoco River. The river basin drains nearly 1m sq km. The right bank basin of the river, entirely Venezuelan, is formed by the Guiana Shield, covered by flat-top mountains called Tepuys and tropical rainforest.

©WWF-Pambour Orinoco

From its sources on the Venezuelan-Brazilian border in the Parima Mountains, the Orinoco flows for its first 600 km west-north-west through virgin jungle. From the south it receives the black waters of the Atabapo River and bends sharply north for the next 500 km, with the same tropical jungle on the right bank and the huge llanos (savannahs) on the left bank.

Crossing these llanos and descending from the Colombian Andes, the Guaviare and the Meta rivers make a massive contribution of water and sediments. The Apure, also a left-bank tributary, collects waters from Venezuelan Andes and after these confluences, the Orinoco bends again, to flow eastwards for 800 km towards its delta. Every second it throws 2m tons of freshwater into the Atlantic, the volume of its discharge the fourth largest in the world.

The Orinoco presents one of the few natural inter-basin connections. After descending from 1,047 metres above sea level at its sources to 100 metres over the first 400 km, the river loses 20-25 per cent of its water through the Brazo Casiquiare, which, flowing from its left bank, joins the Amazon basin.

It was the first river in America to be discovered by Columbus and the last to disclose its sources to Western civilization. Only after 453 years, in 1951, was white man able to cover the 2,150 km of its partly impenetrable course. The tropical climate, mosquitoes, malaria and innumerable rapids and waterfalls, together with the Yanomamis' fearsome reputation as brave warriors, protected the right bank of the basin from conquerors and colonizers.

Large crocodiles and turtles, dolphins and manatees shared the river with the nativeIndians, and can still be found today. Even after 500 years of poorly planned development, the river is still powerful and healthy. Spaniards struggled with the English and the Dutch, following the El Dorado legend, but no gold was found, and the Capitania-General de Venezuela, covering the entire basin, was one of the poorest of the Spanish colonies.

	©WWF-Gunther Jaguar, Orinoco

On the left-bank llanos, which flood annually, cattle were raised and flamingo feathers were collected and sold to Europe. In 1917, oil was discovered in Venezuela, and during the Second World War the basin was explored for raw materials. Gold, iron, bauxite, diamonds, quartz, kaolin, silica, coal and natural rubber were found in large quantities, apart from 250,000 sq km of forest. But it was petroleum that fuelled the legions of developing companies and engineers arriving from Europe and North America to design and build the new modern country.

On the right bank basin, the Caroni River which collects almost all the waters from the Gran Sabana (a savannah at the top of the Guiana Shield) was locked to form the great Lake Guri, providing huge amounts of energy for the whole country and for the steel and aluminium industries, both built in the newly founded city of Ciudad Guayana, at the confluence of the Orinoco and the Caroni. Almost all the tributaries of the Apure River were locked, for reasons of water management or hydroelectric power.

Engineers followed the newest technological trends. As a result, the hydrology of all the tributaries from the Andes in the west that cross the llanos has changed dramatically, and the flow of these rivers has been reduced by as much as 30 per cent. Herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers drain into the rivers, lowering the water quality. Dams and overfishing interfere with biological cycles, exhausting and modifying fisheries. The main course of the lower Orinoco has been dredged, and one of the arms of the delta (the Caño Manamo) has been closed with the intention of controlling floods, generating farmland and increasing water flow into the main arm to facilitate the passage of transatlantic ships, which export iron ore, steel, aluminium and alumina from Ciudad Guayana.

* The author travelled almost the whole length of the Orinoco while making a film on the river for Deutsche Welle and Sudwestfunk of Germany.