River
Lukuga River
320 km from source to mouth · DR Congo.
DR CongoFlows into River Congo
In numbers
Length
320km
Average flow
1,800m³/s
Basin
244,500km²
Drop
219m
from 767 m to 548 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
320 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmLake Tanganyikaat 767 m
- 0 kmKalemie160,961 people
- 3 kmLake Tanganyika32,827 km²
- 156 kmchutes Mulimba
- 320 kmRiver Congoat 548 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
It is an outlet river of lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
At the mouth it carries 1,769 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.4 seconds. It drops from 767 m to 548 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 244,500 km², about the size of GB. 14.5 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to March; lowest: from July to October. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KalemieLargest city on its banks · 160,961 people
- Kalemie Airport (FMI)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 10 km from the city
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Lukuga River, month by month
Highest water: from January to March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 900 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,700 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
Lukuga River: the basin in numbers
266,514 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 14.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 56/km²people per km²
- 1,169maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,055mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 22.5°Caverage air temperature
- 28%protected areas
- 13.4%covered by lakes
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 46% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 36% 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
Lukuga River: what you find on the way
- 1Ferry piersKalemie Port
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Lukuga 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
1lake on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- chutes Mulimbakm 165
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Tanganyikakm 3 · 1,433 m deep32,827km²
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
Lukuga River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
River Congo
Angola4,700 km41,800 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Kalimabenge, Nyemba
In the same basin
Republic of the Congo2,272 km12,000 m³/sUbangi River
Central African Republic1,060 km5,900 m³/sKwango RiverDR Congo1,770 km2,700 m³/sUeleDR Congo1,210 km1,500 m³/sLomami RiverDR Congo1,280 km3,000 m³/sSanghaRepublic of the Congo785 km2,500 m³/sEbola RiverDR Congo250 km320 m³/sMbomou RiverCentral African Republic800 km1,300 m³/sLuvua RiverDR Congo350 km600 m³/sSankuru RiverDR Congo1,200 km1,500 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
DR Congo500 km300 m³/s293 km awayMalagarasi River
Tanzania475 km340 m³/s319 km awayRuzizi River
Burundi117 km400 m³/s362 km awayMugere RiverBurundi293 km100 m³/s353 km awayLuvua RiverDR Congo350 km600 m³/s450 km awayRuhwa River
Rwanda50 km6.0 m³/s401 km awayLuapula River
Zambia560 km1,300 m³/s450 km awayMubarazi RiverBurundi67 km28 m³/s436 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q128350) · 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, 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?
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