I think it is highly variable in flow, which is like the Mekong. But I think the Mekong is far more navigable in summer than the Zola Fel is in summer.
My vision of the lower Zola Fel in summer is like many rivers in the southwestern United States. They have fairly heavy flows from the time the snow in the mountains melt (if they drain mountains) and during the spring rains, but then sink down. Most of the actual water flow is undergroud, or moving from one fairly stagnant, stinking pool to another. It's better than having to dig a well, but it's not what people normally think of when they say "river."
It is not, however, as severely variable as the serpents out in the waste. They are much closer to being true wadis, where they only fill with rainwater. The Zola Fel stays wet throughout the year because of snowmelt from the mountains. That keeps something that looks like a river flowing through the upper Zola Fel valley, where the river's channel is fairly narrow and comparatively steeply banked. But once you get to the lower Zola Fel valley, the channel widens and shallows (and there has been a lot of evaporation). At that point, it starts looking much more like what I described above.
Chris
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