In numbers
Length
72km
Average flow
46m³/s
Basin
2,772km²
Drop
170m
from 371 m to 201 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
72 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 371 m
- 39 kmKara104,207 people
- 72 kmMouthat 201 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Stream in Togo
At the mouth it carries 46 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 55 seconds. It drops from 371 m to 201 m, 2.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,772 km², about the size of LU. 345,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KaraLargest city on its banks · 104,207 people
- Yakubu Tali International Airport (TML)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 225 km from the cityCar hire at LFW airport (Lomé)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Kawa, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from December to March. Best months to visit: from November to January.
From about 10 m³/s in the lowest month to 120 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
Kawa: the basin in numbers
2,772 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 345,000people live in the basin
- 124/km²people per km²
- 397maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,307mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.3°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 39% Forest
- 30% Cropland
- 12% 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
Kawa: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kawa 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.
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mont Sokbaro8.5 km away658m
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
Kawa in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Ghana900 km430 m³/s163 km awayRed VoltaGhana313 km23 m³/s198 km awayWhite VoltaGhana640 km250 m³/s239 km awayBlack VoltaGhana1,352 km260 m³/s239 km awaySingou
Burkina Faso311 km54 m³/s168 km awayVolta RiverGhana1,500 km1,300 m³/s426 km awayMono River
Benin467 km54 m³/s383 km awayMékrou River
Niger410 km29 m³/s370 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q35364362) · 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
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 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit