Stream
Mbam River
425 km from source to mouth · Cameroon.
CameroonFlows into Sanaga4th longest in Cameroon
In numbers
Length
425km
Average flow
710m³/s
Basin
42,300km²
Drop
548m
from 935 m to 387 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
425 km of river and 2 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 935 m
- 164 kmLake Bankim164 km²
- 322 kmNoun Rivertributary
- 425 kmSanagaat 387 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Cameroon
At the mouth it carries 710 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.5 seconds. It drops from 935 m to 387 m, 1.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 42,300 km², about the size of NL. 2.5 million people live in it. Highest water: from September to October; lowest: from January to April. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (23% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- SaaLargest city on its banks · 5,727 people
- Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport (NSI)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 72 km from the cityCar hire at DLA airport (Douala)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water4 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Mbam River, month by month
Highest water: from September to October
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to February.
From about 210 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,500 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
Mbam River: the basin in numbers
43,209 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 59/km²people per km²
- 930maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,755mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 23.2°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
- 0.8%covered by lakes
- 5.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 66% Forest
- 25% Cropland
- 2% Pasture
- 3% Towns and cities
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
Mbam River: what you find on the way
- 1WaterfallsChutes
- 4Ferry piersFerry and 3 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Mbam 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Bankimkm 169164km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
SanagaCameroon918 km2,100 m³/sTributaries (1)
Also: Noun River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Equatorial Guinea
NigeriaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q946653) · 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 | Lakeyas — 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit