River
Rurubu River
300 km from source to mouth · Tanzania and Burundi.
Tanzania and BurundiFlows into Kagera River8th longest in Tanzania
In numbers
Length
300km
Average flow
100m³/s
Basin
12,230km²
Drop
374m
from 1,695 m to 1,321 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
300 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 1,695 m
- 63 kmKinyankurutributary
- 300 kmKagera Riverat 1,321 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Burundi
At the mouth it carries 101 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 25 seconds. It drops from 1,695 m to 1,321 m, 1.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 12,230 km², about the size of QA. 4.1 million people live in it. Highest water: April; lowest: from July to October. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- NgaraLargest city on its banks · 16,890 people
- Kigali International Airport (KGL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 83 km from the cityCar hire at MWZ airport (Mwanza)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Rurubu River, month by month
Highest water: April
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 24 m³/s in the lowest month to 240 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
Rurubu River: the basin in numbers
12,230 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 4.1millionpeople live in the basin
- 331/km²people per km²
- 1,654maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,144mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 18.8°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 28% Forest
- 29% Cropland
- 26% Pasture
- 10% 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
Rurubu River: what you find on the way
- 1WaterfallsRusumo Falls
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Rurubu 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.
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mikiko10 km away2,337m
- Mubihembe10 km away2,273m
- Marangara8.5 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.
Photos
Rurubu River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Kagera River
Uganda400 km350 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Ruvyironza River, Kinyankuru
In the same basin
Egypt6,650 km2,800 m³/sWhite Nile
Sudan2,620 km880 m³/sBlue NileSudan1,783 km1,500 m³/sSobat River
South Sudan306 km410 m³/sAtbarah RiverSudan1,120 km370 m³/sBahr el Ghazal RiverSouth Sudan716 km2.0 m³/sTekezé RiverSudan608 km140 m³/sMara RiverTanzania395 km18 m³/sValley of the QueensEgypt4,302 km2,600 m³/sBaro River
Ethiopia306 km240 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Rwanda300 km110 m³/s46 km awayAkanyaru RiverRwanda212 km110 m³/s85 km awayMubarazi RiverBurundi67 km28 m³/s125 km awayRuzizi RiverBurundi117 km400 m³/s201 km awayRuhwa RiverRwanda50 km6.0 m³/s197 km awayMugere RiverBurundi293 km100 m³/s209 km awayKatonga RiverUganda177 km100 m³/s293 km awayMalagarasi RiverTanzania475 km340 m³/s341 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1499639) · 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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