Bordering Colombia and Venezuela, the Zulia River flows through the borderlands, providing abundant water to several communities on both sides of the border.
Indice De Contenido
Location of the Zulia River
The Zulia River rises in a large area of northern South America, in the hills of the Santurbán mountain range in Colombia (see also Cauca River), at an altitude of almost 4,000 metres above sea level.
From there, where it is already fed by some streams coming from several lagoons in the Cachirí páramo, in the city of Santander, it begins its journey, with a total length of around 310 kilometres.
Route of the Zulia River
The first 154 kilometres of the Zulia River are on the Colombian side, through the northern part of Santander, and after a binational stretch it enters Venezuela, where it continues for another 141 kilometres.
In its first stretches, it is fed by the Arboleda, Pamplonita, Salazar, Cucutilla and Peralonso rivers, and crosses the valley of the same name, where its waters are controlled by dams to prevent overflowing and flooding, and are used for irrigation and other purposes in agricultural and industrial areas.
The Zulia River passes through the municipalities of San Cayetano, Arboledas, Cúcuta, Musticua, Santiago, Cucutilla, Tibú, El Zulia, Durania, Salazar and Puerto Santander.
It enters Venezuela through the state of Táchira, where the first town is Boca de Grita, and after 26 kilometres crosses the border between Táchira and the state of the same name.
In the municipality of Encontrados, the Zulia River joins the Catatumbo River, of which it is the largest tributary.
Its basin, with an area of 3,484 square kilometres and an average flow of 50 cubic metres per second, also receives water from the Grita, Táchira (see also Uribante) and Oropé rivers, as well as from the Medio, Motilón and Madre Vieja canals of the Tarra river.
Fishing in Zulia
This practice, which benefits several families who depend on it for their livelihoods, is worrying the fishermen because the fish population has decreased considerably. The fishermen usually fish with nets from rafts in order to move more easily along the riverbed. The lack of fish is of great concern to them as their profits depend on it. It is estimated that the lack of fish is due to the products used in the fields, which end up in the water when it rains, killing large numbers of fish.
Name of the Zulia River
The origin of the name of this Colombian-Venezuelan river has several versions.
The first is that it comes from the word “curibae” or “culibae”, meaning “river that spills over”, because it is a fast-flowing river with strong floods, which later evolved into the word Zulia.
A second possibility is that it comes from the Guaraní word “cur”, which means “to grow” or “to emerge from the riverbed”.
A third possibility is that the name Zulia appears in a document from 1716, which deals with the ownership of a piece of land on the banks of the Escalante River, whose owner was Xulia Da Buyn de Lizárraga, but whose name was changed to Zulia.
The fourth possibility for the origin of the name Zulia comes from the Barí language, where it means “navigable river” or “river of noble waters”.
Finally, others believe that it comes from the princess Zulia, the daughter of the cacique Cinera, who ruled a tribe that inhabited the lands of present-day Norte de Santander, in Colombia, and who died at the hands of the Spaniards, leaving the command to the girl.
Legend has it that Guaimaral, the son of another cacique, the imposing Mara, fell in love with Zulia and married her, but she too was later killed by the conquistadors. Grief-stricken, Guaimaral returned to his father’s lands and named rivers, towns and regions in memory of his great love.
It should be noted that the indigenous belief (see also Manu River) has no scientific or historical record to support its veracity.
Pollution of the Zulia River
According to reports registered by Corponor, the environmental organisation of Norte de Santander, the water of the Zulia River is highly polluted in many sections, as it is used as a dumping ground for sewage and waste of all kinds.
On the other hand, the unregulated use of the river’s waters increases the risk of contamination, since various organic, inorganic and other materials and elements are washed into the river’s banks and depths without any subsequent control or treatment.
In some areas of the Zulia River, faecal coliforms have been found to exceed the limit of 200 to 2000 micro-organisms per 100 millilitres of water, affecting hundreds of thousands of people living in the surrounding communities, especially the population of Cúcuta (see also Bogotá River).
The La Seca stream alone, near the Mariano Ospina Pérez bridge that connects the city of Cúcuta to the department of El Zulia, serves as a storm drain and carries about 177 litres of sewage per second into the river.