The Juba and Shabelle rivers are the only perennial rivers in the country, but 90% of their flow originates from a neighbouring country - Ethiopia. The two rivers sustain agricultural production not only by providing much needed irrigation, but also through the very fertile flood plains where a variety of crops are grown for domestic and foreign markets.

SWALIM has updated the river breakages database by mapping them from very high resolution satellite imagery for 2015. Some of the breakages were verified through field visits. Three types of breakages have been identified namely; open, potential and closed. The open breakages are those that were still open during the month of July 2015. The potential breakages represent points that have very weak river embankment or have experienced several breakages in the recent past. The closed breakages are those that were previously open but efforts have been made to close them.