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River

Oti River

900 km from source to mouth · 4 countries.

GhanaTogoBeninBurkina FasoGhana, Togo, Benin and Burkina FasoFlows into Lake Volta3rd longest in Ghana

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

900km

Average flow

430m³/s

Basin

72,900km²

Drop

268m

from 343 m to 75 m

Countries

4

The journey

From source to mouth

900 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

343 m75 m
Sourceat 343 m0 km
Singoutributary265 km
Mango37,748 people460 km
Kara Rivertributary798 km
Lake Voltaat 75 m900 km
0200400600800900 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 343 m
  2. 265 kmSingoutributary
  3. 460 kmMango37,748 people
  4. 798 kmKara Rivertributary
  5. 900 kmLake Voltaat 75 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in West-Central Africa

At the mouth it carries 434 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 5.8 seconds. It drops from 343 m to 75 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 72,900 km², about the size of SL. 3.5 million people live in it. Highest water: September; lowest: from January to April. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (15% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • MangoLargest city on its banks · 37,748 people
  • Yakubu Tali International Airport (TML)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 172 km from the cityCar hire at ACC airport (Accra)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit

Oti River, month by month

Highest water: September

Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to January.

130
28°2 mmJan
130
30°5 mmFeb
140
31°26 mmMar
190
31°59 mmApr
330
29°106 mmMay
550
28°149 mmJun
810
26°182 mmJul
1,100
26°217 mmAug
1,200
26°221 mmSep
950
28°82 mmOct
540
28°9 mmNov
200
27°4 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,200 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

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

Oti River: the basin in numbers

69,600 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Heavily regulatedReservoirs can hold 15% of a year's flow: dams shape its seasons.
  • 3.5millionpeople live in the basin
  • 50/km²people per km²
  • 242maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,049mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 27.7°Caverage air temperature
  • 23%protected areas
  • 0.3%covered by lakes
  • 2.0km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 28% Forest
  • 22% Cropland
  • 17% 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

Oti River: what you find on the way

  • 1Dams
  • 5Weirs
  • 2Ferry piers

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Oti 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.

  • 5mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Mountains at the source (5)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Temtoutamou14 km away469m
  2. Waratamou10 km away463m
  3. Kontenatanmbou9.0 km away447m
  4. Paratammou6.3 km away421m
  5. Dotaka13 km away405m

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Oti River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Oti River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth36 km across

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

Oti River in pictures

Pendjari Fluss
Martin Wegmann · CC BY-SA 3.0
Pendjari fluss
Gregor Rom · CC BY-SA 4.0
Rive de la rivière Pendjari
Padonou Dotou · CC BY-SA 4.0

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q252472) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesPeakyas — 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit