The Bafing River (

Manding Manding may refer to: * Manding languages, a language-dialect continuum in West Africa * Mandinka (disambiguation) ** Mandinka language, one of the Manding languages ** Mandinka people, a West African ethnic group * The Mandé peoples who speak M ...

for "black river") is the upper course and largest

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

of the

Senegal River ,french: Fleuve Sénégal) , name_etymology = , image = Senegal River Saint Louis.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Fishermen on the bank of the Senegal River estuary at the outskirts of Saint-Louis, Senegal ...

which runs through Guinea and

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

and is about long.

Course

The Fonta Djallon in Guinea is the

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...

of the Bafing River, north of

Mamou Mamou (Pular: 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤥𞤵𞤲) is a city and sub-prefecture in a valley of the Fouta Djallon area of Guinea. Population 376,269 (2018 est),and the city is almost 98% Fulani tribe. It flows for about and converges with the

Bakoy River The Bakoy or Bakoye River is a river in West Africa. It runs through Guinea and Mali and joins with the Bafing River to form the Sénégal River at Bafoulabé in the Kayes Region of western Mali. In Manding languages, Bakoye signifies 'white ...

to join the

in western Africa.. The Bafing River is the largest tributary of the Senegal River, and contributes almost half of its total water volume. The Bafing forms part of the

international border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ...

between Guinea and Mali.

Irrigation

Flooding from the Bafing River along the Senegal River had been traditionally relied on as a means of supporting local agriculture. However, a

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

in the 1970s necessitated the construction of dams on both the Bafing River and the Senegal River. The

Manantali Manantali is a town on the Bafing River in the Kayes Region of south-western Mali. East of the town is Lake Manantali and its dam. It is a small town but there is a daily ( morning) market, some shops, a small petrol station and a campsite on th ...

hydroelectric dam, completed in 1987, is located on the Bafing River upstream of Bafoulabé. It forms the largest artificial lake in Mali,

Lake Manantali Lake Manantali is a large artificial lake, formed by the 1989 construction of the Manantali Dam, on the Bafing River in Mali. Its northern point is located 90 km to the south-east of the city of Bafoulabé. Size Lake Manantali covers 477& ...

. The dam retains of water which is used to power the turbines during the dry season. As a result, the intensity of the maximum flood downstream of the dam has been reduced but during the dry season, a flow of between and is maintained..

Ecology

There may be a significant chimpanzee population in the area east of the Bafing River. The

blue-headed bee-eater The blue-headed bee-eater (''Merops muelleri'') is a species of bird in the family Meropidae. It is found in forest habitats in tropical West and Central Africa, including in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic ...

(''merops muelleri'') has also been sighted at the forest on the river south of the

Manding Mountains The Manding Mountains are a highland area in Mali, stretching between its western border with Guinea to an area 50km west of Bamako, Mali's capital. They reach above sea level. Kangaba, the spiritual home of the Mandinka people, is located a ...

References

{{Reflist Rivers of Mali Rivers of Guinea French West Africa Senegal River International rivers of Africa Guinea–Mali border