Cross River, Nigeria
Cross River, Nigeria
About
Cross River is the main river in southeastern Nigeria and gives its name to Cross River State. Although not long by African standards its catchment has high rainfall and it becomes very wide. Over its last 80 km to the sea its flows through swampy rainforest with numerous creeks and forms an inland delta near its confluence with the Calabar River,[1] about 20 km wide and 50 km long between the cities of Oron on the west bank and Calabar, on the east bank, more than 30 km from the open sea. The delta empties into a broad estuary which it shares with a few smaller rivers. At its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean the estuary is 24 km wide. The eastern side of the estuary is in the neighbouring country of Cameroon. Cross River State is connected with a major highway to its sister state Akwa Ibom. The distance between Oron and Calabar is 21 km by boat and about 200 km by road. The population of the lower Cross River traditionally use water transport and Calabar has long had a major seaport, located in the Calabar River about 10 km from its confluence with the Cross River and about 55 km from the sea. One bridge on the Cross River is located along Ikom-Calabar highway and is reported to be one of the landmark achievements of the Gowon administration when it was completed in 1975. The Cross River forms a boundary between two tropical moist forest ecoregions, the Cross-Niger transition forests which lie west of the river, between the Cross and Niger Rivers, and the Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests, which lie to the east between the Cross River and the Sanaga River of Cameroon.
