River
Pangani River
420 km from source to mouth · Tanzania.
TanzaniaFlows into Indian Ocean6th longest in Tanzania
In numbers
Length
420km
Average flow
27m³/s
Basin
42,000km²
Drop
683m
from 683 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
420 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmNyumba ya Mungu Reservoirat 683 m
- 2 kmNyumba ya Mungu Reservoir110 km²
- 17 kmKirya3,998 people
- 204 kmMakuyuni15,516 people
- 222 kmMwanga12,846 people
- 222 kmMazinde20,534 people
- 299 kmKorogwe62,032 people
- 331 kmHale Dam
- 344 kmPangani Falls Dam
- 414 kmPangani8,343 people
- 420 kmIndian Oceanat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in northeastern Tanzania
At the mouth it carries 27 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 93 seconds. It drops from 683 m to 0 m, 1.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 42,000 km², about the size of NL. 3.5 million people live in it. Highest water: May; lowest: February and from August to October. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (30% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- KorogweLargest city on its banks · 62,032 people
- Tanga Airport (TGT)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 65 km from the cityCar hire in ZanzibarDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to OctoberThe best months to visit
Pangani River, month by month
Highest water: May
Lowest water: February and from August to October. Best months to visit: from June to October.
From about 55 m³/s in the lowest month to 330 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
Pangani River: the basin in numbers
40,482 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 87/km²people per km²
- 952maverage altitude of the basin
- 780mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 21.7°Caverage air temperature
- 13%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 1.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 23% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 42% 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
Pangani River: what you find on the way
- 2Ferry piersPangani Ferry
- 1River beachesPangani beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Pangani 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
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Nyumba ya Mungu Reservoirkm 1110km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Maziwi Island12 km away0.5km²
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Pangani River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (3)
Also: Mkuzu River, Lwengera River, Mkomazi (Pangani)
KenyaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q506955) · 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, Islandyas — 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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