The Chambeshi (or Chambezi) River of northeastern

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

is the most remote

headstream The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

of the

Congo River The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon Ri ...

(in length) and therefore it is considered the source of the Congo River. (However, by volume of water, the

Lualaba River The Lualaba River (, , ) flows entirely within the eastern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides the greatest streamflow to the Congo River, while the River source, source of the Congo is recognized as the Chambeshi River, Chambeshi ...

provides a greater

streamflow Streamflow, or channel runoff, is the flow of water in streams and other channels, and is a major element of the water cycle. It is one runoff component, the movement of water from the land to waterbodies, the other component being ''surface runo ...

to the Congo.) The Chambeshi rises as a

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

in the

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

s of northeast Zambia near

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

at an elevation of above sea level. It flows for 480 km into the Bangweulu Wetlands, which are part of

Lake Bangweulu Lake Bangweulu ('where the water sky meets the sky') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in northern Zambia. Bangweulu is one of the world's great Wetland, wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Wetlands and the Bangweulu flats or ...

. By the end of the

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...

in May, the river delivers a

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

which recharges the wetlands and inundates the Zambesian grasslands to the southeast. The water then flows out of the wetlands as the

Luapula River The Luapula River is a north-flowing river of central Africa, within the Congo River watershed. It rises in the wetlands of Lake Bangweulu (Zambia), which are fed by the Chambeshi River. The Luapula flows west then north, marking the border betw ...

. For more than 100 km of its length as it flows to the east of Kasama, the river consists of a maze of channels in wetlands about 2 km wide, in a

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

up to 25 km wide. Further downstream, where it is bridged by the Kasama–Mpika road and the Tazara Railway, the permanent main channel is about 100 m wide, and up to 400 m wide in flood.Google Earth accessed 4 February 2007

References

External links

Chambeshi River Floods
at

NASA Earth Observatory NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information about the climate and the environment which are being provided by NASA for ...

Rivers of Zambia Lake Bangweulu Tributaries of the Congo River {{Zambia-river-stub