River
Lawa River
362 km from source to mouth · French Guiana, France and Suriname.
French Guiana, France and SurinameFlows into Maroni
In numbers
Length
362km
Average flow
970m³/s
Basin
34,383km²
Drop
148m
from 185 m to 37 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
362 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 185 m
- 233 kmIninitributary
- 237 kmMaripasoula8,423 people
- 237 kmMaripa Soula
- 270 kmAssici Kreektributary
- 304 kmPenabisoengoe Vallen
- 341 kmGrand-Santi9,668 people
- 362 kmMaroniat 37 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Suriname and French Guiana
At the mouth it carries 969 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.6 seconds. It drops from 185 m to 37 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 34,383 km², about the size of MD. 14,000 people live in it. Highest water: from May to June; lowest: from October to December. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Grand-SantiLargest city on its banks · 9,668 people
- Maripasoula Airport (MPY)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 78 km from the cityCar hire at PBM airport (Paramaribo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water19 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From September to NovemberThe best months to visit
Lawa River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Lowest water: from October to December. Best months to visit: from September to November.
From about 240 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,200 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
Lawa River: the basin in numbers
34,383 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 14,000people live in the basin
- 0/km²people per km²
- 206maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,358mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.2°Caverage air temperature
- 53%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 99% Forest
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
Lawa River: what you find on the way
- 5WaterfallsKiboï Soula, Petit Saut, Saut Lavaud and 2 more
- 16Boat rampsDégrad, Dégrad amérindien and 14 more
- 3Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Lawa 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.
2waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
Waterfalls (2)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Maripa Soulakm 237
- Penabisoengoe Vallenkm 304
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
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
Lawa River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
MaroniFrench Guiana612 km1,700 m³/sTributaries (3)
Also: Tampok, Inini, Assici Kreek
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Suriname480 km440 m³/s178 km awayCoppename RiverSuriname400 km550 m³/s230 km awaySaramacca RiverSuriname255 km280 m³/s232 km awayOyapockFrance403 km840 m³/s311 km awayCourantyne River
Guyana724 km580 m³/s339 km awayBerbice RiverGuyana595 km370 m³/s403 km awayDemerara RiverGuyana350 km290 m³/s495 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1516727) · 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 | Cascadyas — 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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