River
Ouémé River
480 km from source to mouth · Benin.
Benin1st longest in Benin
In numbers
Length
480km
Average flow
170m³/s
Basin
46,990km²
Drop
387m
from 386 m to -1 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
480 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmTogo Mountainsat 386 m
- 138 kmBétérou13,108 people
- 364 kmLake Azili3.1 km²
- 392 kmZou Rivertributary
- 451 kmOkpara Rivertributary
- 459 kmAlpouro Rivertributary
- 462 kmLake Nokoué175 km²
- 464 kmCotonou679,012 people
- 480 kmMouthat -1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Benin
At the mouth it carries 170 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 15 seconds. It drops from 386 m to -1 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 46,990 km², about the size of BT. 10.5 million people live in it. Highest water: from July to September; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- CotonouLargest city on its banks · 679,012 people
- Cotonou Cadjehoun International Airport (COO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 4 km from the cityCar hire at LFW airport (Lomé)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water6 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to January and AugustThe best months to visit
Ouémé River, month by month
Highest water: from July to September
Lowest water: from December to March. Best months to visit: from November to January and August.
From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 620 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
Ouémé River: the basin in numbers
59,906 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 10.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 178/km²people per km²
- 235maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,132mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.9°Caverage air temperature
- 16%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 52% Forest
- 40% Cropland
- 4% Pasture
- 6% 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
Ouémé River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 1Boat ramps
- 2Ferry piers
- 3MarinasEmbarcadère pour l'Ile d'Agonvè, Embarcadère
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Ouémé 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Azilikm 4533.1km²
- Lake Nokouékm 576175km²
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
Tributaries (3)
Also: Okpara River, Zou River, Alpouro River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Benin467 km54 m³/s67 km awayVolta River
Ghana1,500 km1,300 m³/s208 km awayZio River
Togo179 km34 m³/s110 km awayOti RiverGhana900 km430 m³/s329 km awayNiger River
Nigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/s459 km awayWhite VoltaGhana640 km250 m³/s455 km awayBlack VoltaGhana1,352 km260 m³/s455 km awayKaduna RiverNigeria550 km640 m³/s455 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q595037) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
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 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit