River
Pungwe River
400 km from source to mouth · Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Mozambique and ZimbabweFlows into Mozambique Channel6th longest in Mozambique
In numbers
Length
400km
Average flow
320m³/s
Basin
31,151km²
Drop
707m
from 708 m to 1 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
400 km of river and 1 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 708 m
- 359 kmBúzi16,369 people
- 400 kmMozambique Channelat 1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Mozambique
At the mouth it carries 315 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 7.9 seconds. It drops from 708 m to 1 m, 1.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 31,151 km², about the size of BE. 1.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from July to October. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (16% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- BúziLargest city on its banks · 16,369 people
- Beira International Airport (BEW)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 47 km from the cityCar hire at BEW airport (Beira)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Pungwe River, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 32 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,200 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
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The basin
Pungwe River: the basin in numbers
28,572 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 47/km²people per km²
- 484maverage altitude of the basin
- 984mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 22.0°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 1.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 91% Forest
- 4% Cropland
- 43% Pasture
- 1% 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
Pungwe River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 1Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Pungwe 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.
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Besowota12 km away
- Mapungani12 km away
- Makungu9.8 km away
- Chinyamurevu14 km away
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
Pungwe River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Honde River, Urema
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Mozambique250 km79 m³/s0 km awaySave RiverMozambique400 km910 m³/s121 km awayZambezi RiverMozambique2,574 km7,000 m³/s214 km awayShire RiverMozambique402 km600 m³/s251 km awayRunde RiverZimbabwe418 km140 m³/s290 km awayRuo River
Malawi1,025 km560 m³/s369 km awayBubye RiverZimbabwe1,010 km140 m³/s463 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2116568) · 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 | Peakyas — 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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