The
Sunzha (, , ) is a river in
North Ossetia,
Ingushetia and
Chechnya,
Russia, a tributary of the
Terek River. It flows northeast inside the great northwest bend of the Terek River and catches most of the rivers that flow north from the mountains before they reach the Terek. It is long. The Sunzha rises on the Northern slope of the
Caucasus Major. Its major tributaries are the
Assa River and
Argun River. With a
turbidity of , it carries 12.2 million tons of
alluvium per year. It is used for irrigation. Cities that lie on the Sunzha include
Nazran,
Karabulak,
Grozny (the capital of Chechnya), and
Gudermes. During the
First and
Second Chechen Wars, the destruction of petroleum reservoirs caused the Sunzha to become polluted with petroleum.