River
Sankuru River
1,200 km from source to mouth · DR Congo.
DR CongoFlows into Kasai River7th longest in DR Congo
In numbers
Length
1,200km
Average flow
1,500m³/s
Basin
156,000km²
Drop
629m
from 979 m to 350 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,200 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 979 m
- 365 kmLwembetributary
- 505 kmMbuji-Mayi Rivertributary
- 696 kmLusambo49,376 people
- 813 kmLubefu Rivertributary
- 1,018 kmLubudi River (Sankuru tributary)tributary
- 1,200 kmKasai Riverat 350 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
At the mouth it carries 1,536 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.6 seconds. It drops from 979 m to 350 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 156,000 km², about the size of SR. 7.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from December to March; lowest: from July to September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- LusamboLargest city on its banks · 49,376 people
- Mbuji Mayi Airport (MJM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 128 km from the city
- On the water12 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to AugustThe best months to visit
Sankuru River, month by month
Highest water: from December to March
Lowest water: from July to September. Best months to visit: from May to August.
From about 500 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,600 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
Sankuru River: the basin in numbers
149,480 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 7.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 49/km²people per km²
- 743maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,558mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 24.1°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 77% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 10% 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
Sankuru River: what you find on the way
- 12Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Kasai River
Republic of the Congo2,272 km12,000 m³/sTributaries (7)
Also: Fwa River, Mbuji-Mayi River, Lubefu River, Lubudi River (Sankuru tributary), Lubi, Lubishi, Lwembe
In the same basin
Angola4,700 km41,800 m³/sUbangi River
Central African Republic1,060 km5,900 m³/sKwango RiverDR Congo1,770 km2,700 m³/sUeleDR Congo1,210 km1,500 m³/sLomami RiverDR Congo1,280 km3,000 m³/sSanghaRepublic of the Congo785 km2,500 m³/sEbola RiverDR Congo250 km320 m³/sMbomou RiverCentral African Republic800 km1,300 m³/sLuvua RiverDR Congo350 km600 m³/sAruwimi RiverDR Congo1,300 km1,600 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q899815) · 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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