River
Volta River
1,500 km from source to mouth · Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Ghana and Burkina FasoFlows into Gulf of Guinea1st longest in Ghana
In numbers
Length
1,500km
Average flow
1,300m³/s
Basin
388,000km²
Drop
250m
from 250 m to 0 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
1,500 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 250 m
- 983 kmBlack Voltatributary
- 1,136 kmKete Krachi11,000 people
- 1,325 kmLake Volta6,045 km²
- 1,325 kmAkosombo Dam
- 1,334 kmAdome Bridge
- 1,369 kmKasu Lagoon1.5 km²
- 1,408 kmLower Volta Bridge
- 1,416 kmTodzie Rivertributary
- 1,500 kmGulf of Guineaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River system in West Africa
At the mouth it carries 1,288 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.9 seconds. It drops from 250 m to 0 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 388,000 km², about the size of ZW. 24.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from September to October; lowest: from January to April. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 489% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- Kete KrachiLargest city on its banks · 11,000 people
- Prempeh I International Airport (KMS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 208 km from the cityCar hire at LFW airport (Lomé)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water30 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Volta River, month by month
Highest water: from September to October
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to January.
From about 290 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,600 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
Volta River: the basin in numbers
412,648 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 24.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 59/km²people per km²
- 253maverage altitude of the basin
- 989mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 27.6°Caverage air temperature
- 12%protected areas
- 1.6%covered by lakes
- 152km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 28% Forest
- 23% Cropland
- 30% Pasture
- 2% 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
Volta River: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
- 4Boat ramps
- 26Ferry piersAtimpoku, New Chanakope and 24 more
- 2River beachesTwin Islands Reception, Sajuna Beach Club
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Volta 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 Voltakm 1,318 · 75 m deep6,045km²
- Kasu Lagoonkm 1,3621.5km²
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.
Photos
Volta River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (5)
Also: Daka River, Todzie River, Senne, Pru River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Benin467 km54 m³/s142 km awayZio River
Togo179 km34 m³/s101 km awayOuémé RiverBenin480 km170 m³/s208 km awayOti RiverGhana900 km430 m³/s287 km awayWhite VoltaGhana640 km250 m³/s365 km awayBlack VoltaGhana1,352 km260 m³/s365 km awayTano River
Ivory Coast400 km150 m³/s403 km awayBia RiverIvory Coast300 km130 m³/s432 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q192415) · 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.
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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