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Stream

Sanaga

918 km from source to mouth · Cameroon.

CameroonCameroonFlows into Bight of Biafra2nd longest in Cameroon

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

918km

Average flow

2,100m³/s

Basin

129,212km²

Drop

878m

from 878 m to 0 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

918 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

878 m0 m
Sourceat 878 m0 km
Mbakaou Reservoir205 km²148 km
Lomtributary305 km
Bélabo24,359 people359 km
Chutes Etok530 km
Mbam Rivertributary641 km
Edéa103,861 people815 km
Bight of Biafraat 0 m918 km
0200400600800918 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 878 m
  2. 148 kmMbakaou Reservoir205 km²
  3. 305 kmLomtributary
  4. 359 kmBélabo24,359 people
  5. 529 kmNkoteng27,677 people
  6. 530 kmChutes Etok
  7. 553 kmMbandjok29,281 people
  8. 641 kmMbam Rivertributary
  9. 755 kmSong Loulou Hydroelectric Power Station
  10. 813 kmEdea Hydroelectric Power Station
  11. 815 kmJapoma Bridge
  12. 815 kmEdéa103,861 people
  13. 824 kmLake Ossa19 km²
  14. 851 kmLake Tissongo5.2 km²
  15. 918 kmBight of Biafraat 0 m

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

River in Cameroon

At the mouth it carries 2,072 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.2 seconds. It drops from 878 m to 0 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 129,212 km², about the size of NI. 4.0 million people live in it. Highest water: October; lowest: from January to April. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (13% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • EdéaLargest city on its banks · 103,861 people
  • Douala International Airport (DLA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 51 km from the cityCar hire at DLA airport (Douala)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water12 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From November to FebruaryThe best months to visit

Sanaga, month by month

Highest water: October

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

1,400
25°12 mmJan
580
26°28 mmFeb
730
26°101 mmMar
1,200
25°154 mmApr
2,000
25°202 mmMay
2,500
24°186 mmJun
2,800
23°172 mmJul
3,100
23°218 mmAug
3,600
24°298 mmSep
4,100
24°278 mmOct
3,500
25°73 mmNov
2,600
25°14 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 580 m³/s in the lowest month to 4,100 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

Car hire at DLA airport (Douala)Discover CarsSee 

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

Sanaga: the basin in numbers

133,624 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Heavily regulatedReservoirs can hold 13% of a year's flow: dams shape its seasons.
  • 4.0millionpeople live in the basin
  • 30/km²people per km²
  • 833maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,677mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 23.5°Caverage air temperature
  • 6%protected areas
  • 0.5%covered by lakes
  • 7.9km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 68% Forest
  • 20% Cropland
  • 1% 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

Sanaga: what you find on the way

  • 7DamsMbakaou Dam, Barrage de Nachtigal, Songloulou Dam and 4 more
  • 2Weirs
  • 4WaterfallsChutes, Chutes de Nachtigal and 2 more
  • 9Ferry piers
  • 3Marinas

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Sanaga 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
  • 3lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 1island off the mouthIslandyas

Waterfalls (1)

On the river, by Cascadyas

  1. Chutes Etokkm 546

Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗

Lakes and reservoirs (3)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Mbakaou Reservoirkm 153205km²
  2. Lake Ossakm 85019km²
  3. Lake Tissongokm 8775.2km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Islands off the mouth (1)

Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas

  1. Manoka27 km away

Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Sanaga: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Sanaga: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth50 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

Sanaga in pictures

Sanaga Mbam Rivers
UJung · CC BY-SA 3.0
Alentour fleuve sanaga 06
Photokadaffi · CC BY-SA 4.0
Alentour fleuve sanaga 09
Photokadaffi · CC BY-SA 4.0
1Sanaga~2
Flycameroon · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (3)

Mbam RiverCameroonCameroon425 km710 m³/sjoins at km 661Faro RiverNigeriaNigeria305 km360 m³/s

Also: Lom

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Nyong RiverCameroonCameroon640 km450 m³/s43 km awayWouri RiverCameroonCameroon160 km620 m³/s58 km awayCampo RiverEquatorial GuineaEquatorial Guinea460 km720 m³/s135 km awayCross RiverNigeriaNigeria489 km170 m³/s210 km awayMbam RiverCameroonCameroon425 km710 m³/s204 km awayBenito RiverEquatorial GuineaEquatorial Guinea365 km510 m³/s220 km awayNiger RiverNigeriaNigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/s406 km awayUtamboni RiverEquatorial GuineaEquatorial Guinea141 km340 m³/s283 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q1250532) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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 atlasesCascadyas, Lakeyas, Islandyas — 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