Stream
Kwango River
1,770 km from source to mouth · DR Congo and Angola.
DR Congo and AngolaFlows into Kasai River2nd longest in DR Congo
In numbers
Length
1,770km
Average flow
2,700m³/s
Basin
263,500km²
Drop
1,013m
from 1,307 m to 294 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
1,770 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,307 m
- 486 kmCuango-Luzamba55,000 people
- 822 kmQuedas de Francisco José
- 1,569 kmWamba Rivertributary
- 1,770 kmKasai Riverat 294 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River
At the mouth it carries 2,700 m³/s on average: 1.1 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 1,307 m to 294 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 263,500 km², about the size of GA. 4.9 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to April; lowest: from July to October. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Cuango-LuzambaLargest city on its banks · 55,000 people
- Malanje Airport (MEG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 195 km from the city
- On the water5 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Kwango River, month by month
Highest water: from January to April
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 870 m³/s in the lowest month to 5,400 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Kwango River: the basin in numbers
270,632 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 4.9millionpeople live in the basin
- 18/km²people per km²
- 809maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,478mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 22.8°Caverage air temperature
What covers the basin
- 79% Forest
- 4% Cropland
- 19% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Kwango River: what you find on the way
- 4Ferry piers
- 1MarinasPort Lwani
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kwango River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Quedas de Francisco Josékm 659
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Kwango River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Kasai River
Republic of the Congo2,272 km12,000 m³/sTributaries (4)
Also: Wamba River, Lwi, Cuale, Kwilu
In the same basin
Angola4,700 km41,800 m³/sUbangi River
Central African Republic1,060 km5,900 m³/sUeleDR Congo1,210 km1,500 m³/sLomami RiverDR Congo1,280 km3,000 m³/sSanghaRepublic of the Congo785 km2,500 m³/sEbola RiverDR Congo250 km320 m³/sMbomou RiverCentral African Republic800 km1,300 m³/sLuvua RiverDR Congo350 km600 m³/sSankuru RiverDR Congo1,200 km1,500 m³/sAruwimi RiverDR Congo1,300 km1,600 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
DR Congo965 km1,200 m³/s1 km awayLukenie RiverDR Congo1,014 km1,700 m³/s110 km awaySanghaRepublic of the Congo785 km2,500 m³/s242 km awayUbangi RiverCentral African Republic1,060 km5,900 m³/s318 km awaySankuru RiverDR Congo1,200 km1,500 m³/s354 km awayTshuapa RiverDR Congo1,300 km3,600 m³/s395 km awayLulonga RiverDR Congo180 km1,800 m³/s458 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q732790) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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