Desna (river) - the largest tributary of the Dnieper

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

The longest tributary of the Dnieper River, the largest water artery in Ukraine, is the Desna. The river originates in Russia, in the Smolensk region, and flows into the Dnieper just above Kyiv. The total length of the Desna is 1130 km.

Location

The Desna River, the map of which will be given below, flows through only four regions. Two of them are Russian: these are the Bryansk and Smolensk regions. On the territory of Ukraine, the Desna flows in the Kyiv region and to the greatest extent in Chernihiv.

General Features

Desna is a river with only 31 tributaries, eighteen of which are right and thirteen left. The total area of the water basin is 90 thousand square meters. The bottom depth is on average from 2 to 4 meters, but in some places this value can increase to 17. At the mouth of the river, the width of the water reaches 450 meters. Before the Seim, the largest tributary, the Desna is not a very wide river, and the Seim expands it to 300 meters, although earlier values \u200b\u200bare found to be much smaller. For example, in Novgorod-Seversky, its width on city beaches can be only 20-30 meters, although outside the city this value increases two or even three to four times. The difference in width is often due tofor the fact that the water artery is very ornate, flows through different types of terrain and has a huge number of turns, so sometimes it is not clear whether the river is large or small.

The same factor is connected with the fact that the speed of the current is different. People who love to relax on the Desna River choose places where it is more or less calm so that they can have a good swim and relax without incidents, which, by the way, are quite common. The speed of the current is such that an inept swimmer can easily be carried to a depth or overwhelmed by a wave. The bottom of the Desna is uneven: either you are standing waist-deep in the middle of the river, or you suddenly cannot reach the bottom right under the very shore.

The statistics of tragic cases, unfortunately, is not so small, but this, in principle, is no longer connected with the course of the river, but with the fact that people are careless and do not know the elementary rules of behavior on the water. Many run headlong to dive without scouting the bottom.

From shipping to cleanup challenges

It was also noted that the river is regularly navigable from Novgorod-Seversky to the mouth and a dry cargo ship runs upstream. But the situation is such that every year the Desna (river) becomes smaller. Increasingly, only motor boats or tourist boats can be seen on the water expanses. The problem is connected with the fact that, unfortunately, no one is engaged in cleaning the rivers. All sand, silt, garbage, waste are generously dumped by both ordinary citizens and entire enterprises. For the river to be full-flowing, clean,complete, you need to clean it, but you need to spend money on it. And the state, as usual, does not provide budgetary funds for these expenses.

Where does the water come from in the Desna

The waters of the river are replenished to the greatest extent with melted snow. In the spring, the gums usually overflow strongly, and this is observed for quite a long time. Its waters flood the meadows, which make up the lion's share of the territories in its valley. The more snow falls in winter, the cooler the spring, the larger and longer the Desna (river) fills these same meadows. The photo of the spill at the monastery in Novgorod-Seversky perfectly describes what kind of landscape you can expect in the spring.

In addition, it flows through forest belts, and its valley hosts many bays and lakes. To call the Desna monotonous and uninteresting, no one will turn their tongues.

What is remarkable to see along the river?

There are many ancient cities of Ukraine on the Desna River. For example, Novgorod-Seversky, already mentioned above, is a city of the Drevlyans, founded in 989. It is located in the Chernihiv region.

The city is of great historical value: many events related to Kievan Rus took place in it, and even in earlier times. There are also many interesting monuments of culture and history. But, unfortunately, over the years, Novgorod-Seversky is getting smaller in terms of population. Economy and industry in the cityare developing, even a powerful tourist base is simply idle unnecessarily, and young people prefer to go to bigger cities where there are at least some prospects.

Desna in the news

Most recently, the news slipped that the Desna (a river that was previously quite clean, up to the fact that fish soup was boiled from its water) was subjected to unauthorized dumping of production waste, that is, there are also authorized discharges. Nevertheless, the results of the studies did not show any deterioration in water quality. And it is true that in order to see this result, it is enough just to enter the river clean and come out dirty. No research will show anything. They will show only girlish hair, which, after staying in the Desnyansk waters, can be styled without gel as you wish. This, of course, is an exaggeration, but the fact remains that there is pollution, and it is necessary to deal with this, and not conduct examinations that show that the water is still relatively clean.

What else can attract the Desna River? Fishing - an interesting activity for most men - is also quite possible here. So what can you catch in these waters?

Fish that is found in the Desna

Fishermen point out the possibility of catching pike in the waters of the river, also zander, perch, sabrefish, bream, and roach are successfully caught. Burbot, carp, podust, barbel, rudd are considered permanent residents. But such specimens do not come across to fishermen as often as they would like. Places, as they say, you need to know.