River
Mékrou River
410 km from source to mouth · Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso.
Niger, Benin and Burkina FasoFlows into Niger River1st longest in Niger
In numbers
Length
410km
Average flow
29m³/s
Basin
10,500km²
Drop
222m
from 387 m to 165 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
410 km of river and 1 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 387 m
- 258 kmChutes de Koudou
- 410 kmNiger Riverat 165 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger
At the mouth it carries 29 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 87 seconds. It drops from 387 m to 165 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 10,500 km², about the size of LB. 311,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- FalmeyLargest city on its banks · 8,653 people
- Diori Hamani International Airport (NIM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 122 km from the cityCar hire at NIM airport (Niamey)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Mékrou River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to January.
From about 3.5 m³/s in the lowest month to 100 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
Mékrou River: the basin in numbers
10,617 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 311,000people live in the basin
- 29/km²people per km²
- 322maverage altitude of the basin
- 939mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 27.5°Caverage air temperature
- 47%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 23% Forest
- 12% Cropland
- 5% Pasture
- 1% 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
Mékrou River: what you find on the way
- 5WaterfallsChutes de Koudou and 4 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Mékrou 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
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Chutes de Koudoukm 259
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
Mékrou River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Niger River
Nigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/sIn the same basin
Nigeria1,370 km3,200 m³/sBani River
Mali430 km510 m³/sSankarani RiverMali400 km260 m³/sKaduna RiverNigeria550 km640 m³/sFaro RiverNigeria305 km360 m³/sTinkisso River
Guinea268 km180 m³/sSokoto RiverNigeria600 km290 m³/sGongola RiverNigeria531 km210 m³/sSota RiverBenin250 km46 m³/sMilo RiverGuinea330 km190 m³/s
Ghana
TogoWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q739892) · 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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