River
Sirba River
350 km from source to mouth · Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso.
Niger, Benin and Burkina FasoFlows into Niger River2nd longest in Niger
In numbers
Length
350km
Average flow
780m³/s
Basin
665,815km²
Drop
107m
from 295 m to 188 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
350 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 8 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 295 m
- 259 kmBossey Bongou2,906 people
- 279 kmTchawa753 people
- 299 kmBoulkagou3,437 people
- 312 kmTouré4,065 people
- 329 kmLarba Birno4,713 people
- 329 kmLarba Touloumbou758 people
- 336 kmGarbey Kourou4,634 people
- 339 kmTallé2,603 people
- 350 kmNiger Riverat 188 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Burkina Faso and Niger
At the mouth it carries 778 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.2 seconds. It drops from 295 m to 188 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 665,815 km², about the size of MM. 18.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. Its dams hold back little of its water (9.9% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Larba BirnoLargest city on its banks · 4,713 people
- Diori Hamani International Airport (NIM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 72 km from the cityCar hire at NIM airport (Niamey)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Sirba River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to January.
From about 300 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,300 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
Sirba River: the basin in numbers
665,815 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 18.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 28/km²people per km²
- 355maverage altitude of the basin
- 665mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 27.7°Caverage air temperature
- 11%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 2.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 8% Forest
- 10% Cropland
- 37% 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
Sirba River: what you find on the way
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Sirba 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.
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Zongopika9.4 km away306m
- Zong-Piiga Mountain9.5 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
Sirba River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Niger River
Nigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/sIn the same basin
Nigeria1,370 km3,200 m³/sBani River
Mali430 km510 m³/sSankarani RiverMali400 km260 m³/sKaduna RiverNigeria550 km640 m³/sMékrou RiverNiger410 km29 m³/sFaro RiverNigeria305 km360 m³/sTinkisso River
Guinea268 km180 m³/sSokoto RiverNigeria600 km290 m³/sGongola RiverNigeria531 km210 m³/sSota RiverBenin250 km46 m³/s
Ghana
TogoWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1328852) · 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 | 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
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