The Rinža River

The Rinža River is the only river in the Kočevska region.

It is a distinctive Karst river disappearing underground and flowing into the Kolpa River as the Bilpa brook. The spring of the Rinža River is Reberski studenec (brook) located at the foothills of Stojna behind the village of Mrtvice. Many streams, characteristic Karst springs running from Stojna, fall into the Rinža River along their flow across the Kočevsko polje. The waters rise during heavy rains and in the spring time. The tributaries flowing from Kočevsko polje are less substantial and have no Karst spring characteristics. One part of water disappears underground just outside Kočevje and flows under Rog to the Dolenjska region. The amount of precipitation has an impact on its final point of underground disappearance. At high waters it doesn’t disappear underground before Mozelj.

The water from the Dolenjevaško polje also flows into the Rinža River. When the waters rise, the “Zadnja Rinža” flows from the sinkholes near Jasnica and joins the “Prava Rinža”. When the level of “Zadnja Rinža” starts to drop, “Prednja Rinža” wells from the holes before Jasnica and disappears in the sinkhole near Spodnje Ložine. However, when the river level rises above 260 cm, it joins “Zadnja Rinža” and “Prava Rinža” in Mrtvice. This causes floods which are nonetheless limited by the containment dam in Zadolje at the foothills of the Ribnica’s Velika Gora.