River
Ouham River
676 km from source to mouth · Chad and Central African Republic.
Chad and Central African RepublicFlows into Chari River3rd longest in Chad
In numbers
Length
676km
Average flow
480m³/s
Basin
70,000km²
Drop
259m
from 613 m to 354 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
676 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 613 m
- 154 kmBossangoa55,353 people
- 315 kmFafatributary
- 316 kmBatangafo24,119 people
- 460 kmNana Barya Rivertributary
- 506 kmMoïssala17,281 people
- 676 kmChari Riverat 354 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Central African Republic
At the mouth it carries 480 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 5.2 seconds. It drops from 613 m to 354 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 70,000 km², about the size of IE. 1.4 million 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
- BossangoaLargest city on its banks · 55,353 people
- On the water10 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Ouham 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 62 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
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The basin
Ouham River: the basin in numbers
83,237 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 17/km²people per km²
- 558maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,293mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.6°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 59% Forest
- 5% Cropland
- 17% Pasture
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
Ouham River: what you find on the way
- 1Rapids
- 10Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Ouham 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.
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Bilipolo15 km away
- Massif Bata8.8 km away
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Chari River
Cameroon1,400 km1,200 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Nana Barya River, Fafa
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2001150) · 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?
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