River
Wouri River
160 km from source to mouth · Cameroon.
CameroonFlows into Bight of Biafra5th longest in Cameroon
In numbers
Length
160km
Average flow
620m³/s
Basin
11,700km²
Drop
258m
from 259 m to 1 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
160 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 259 m
- 64 kmMakombé Rivertributary
- 95 kmYabassi7,560 people
- 159 kmDouala bridge
- 159 kmSecond bridge over the Wouri in Douala
- 159 kmBonabéri8,091 people
- 160 kmDouala2,768,436 people
- 160 kmBight of Biafraat 1 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 618 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 4.0 seconds. It drops from 259 m to 1 m, 1.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 11,700 km², about the size of QA. 1.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to October; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- DoualaLargest city on its banks · 2,768,436 people
- Douala International Airport (DLA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 5 km from the cityCar hire at DLA airport (Douala)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Wouri River, month by month
Highest water: from August to October
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to February.
From about 110 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,500 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
Wouri River: the basin in numbers
12,235 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 117/km²people per km²
- 567maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,591mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 24.3°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 89% Forest
- 8% Cropland
- 4% 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.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Wouri 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.
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Ile Djébalé7.6 km away
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Wouri River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Makombé River, Abo
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Cameroon918 km2,100 m³/s58 km awayNyong RiverCameroon640 km450 m³/s93 km awayCross River
Nigeria489 km170 m³/s180 km awayMbam RiverCameroon425 km710 m³/s179 km awayCampo River
Equatorial Guinea460 km720 m³/s192 km awayNiger RiverNigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/s385 km awayBenito RiverEquatorial Guinea365 km510 m³/s278 km awayUtamboni RiverEquatorial Guinea141 km340 m³/s340 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1405842) · 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 | 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?
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