| Lake Bangweulu | |
|---|---|
 Locals on the shore of Lake Bangweulu | |
  Lake Bangweulu  Lake Bangweulu | |
| Location | Luapula Province and Northern Province |
| Coordinates | 11°05′S 29°45′E / 11.083°S 29.750°E |
| Primary inflows | Chambeshi |
| Primary outflows | Luapula River |
| Basin countries | Zambia |
| Surface area | 15,100 km2 (5,800 sq mi) |
| Water volume | 5,000 million cubic metres (4,100,000 acre⋅ft) |
| Surface elevation | 1,140 m (3,740 ft) |
| Official name | Bangweulu Swamps |
| Designated | 28 August 1991 |
| Reference no. | 531[1] |
Lake Bangweulu ('where the water sky meets the sky'[2]) is a freshwater lake in northern Zambia. Bangweulu is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Wetlands and the Bangweulu flats or floodplain.[3] Situated in the upper Congo River basin in Zambia, the Bangweulu system covers an almost completely flat area roughly the size of Connecticut or East Anglia, at an elevation of 1,140 m straddling Zambia's Luapula Province and Northern Province. It is crucial to the economy and biodiversity of northern Zambia, and to the birdlife of a much larger region, and faces environmental stress and conservation issues.[4]
With a long axis of 75 km and a width of up to 40 km, Lake Bangweulu's permanent open water surface is about 3,000 km2, which expands when its swamps and floodplains are in flood at the end of the rainy season in May. The combined area of the lake and wetlands reaches 15,000 km2. The lake has an average depth of only 4 m,[5][6] and a maximum depth of 10 m.[7]
The Bangweulu system is fed by about seventeen rivers of which the Chambeshi (the source of the Congo River) is the largest, and is drained by the Luapula River.[3]
- ^ "Bangweulu Swamps". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- ^ "Lake Bangweulu". www.zambia.travel. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
- ^ a b Camerapix: Spectrum Guide to Zambia. Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.
- ^ Halls, A.J. (ed.), 1997. "Wetlands, Biodiversity and the Ramsar Convention: The Role of the Convention on Wetlands in the Conservation and Wise Use of Biodiversity". Ramsar Convention Bureau, Gland, Switzerland
- ^ Google Earth (http://earth.google.com) accessed 31 January 2007.
- ^ ILEC Data Summary: Lake Bangweulu. Website accessed 30 January 2007
- ^ Lake Profile: Bangweulu. Accessed 8 September 2021.