River
Dawa River
595 km from source to mouth · Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Somalia, Kenya and EthiopiaFlows into Jubba River3rd longest in Somalia
In numbers
Length
595km
Average flow
140m³/s
Basin
60,316km²
Drop
1,058m
from 1,235 m to 177 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
595 km of river and 2 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,235 m
- 454 kmRamu35,644 people
- 535 kmMandera114,718 people
- 595 kmJubba Riverat 177 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in East Africa
At the mouth it carries 145 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 17 seconds. It drops from 1,235 m to 177 m, 1.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 60,316 km², about the size of TG. 2.7 million people live in it. Highest water: May; lowest: from February to March and from August to September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- ManderaLargest city on its banks · 114,718 people
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to September and DecemberThe best months to visit
Dawa River, month by month
Highest water: May
Lowest water: from February to March and from August to September. Best months to visit: from June to September and December.
From about 33 m³/s in the lowest month to 480 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
Dawa River: the basin in numbers
60,316 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2.7millionpeople live in the basin
- 45/km²people per km²
- 1,118maverage altitude of the basin
- 529mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 22.5°Caverage air temperature
- 26%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 6% Cropland
- 30% 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
Dawa River: what you find on the way
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Dawa River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Jubba RiverSomalia1,658 km130 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1178464) · 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
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