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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Four major river systems follow meandering courses from
north
to south, draining into the Gulf of Guinea. From west to
east these
are the Cavally, Sassandra, Bandama, and Comoé--all
relatively
untamed rivers navigable only short distances inland from
the
coast. In the north, many smaller tributaries change to
dry
streambeds between rains.
The Cavally River has its headwaters in the Nimba
Mountains of
Guinea and forms the border between Côte d'Ivoire and
Liberia for
over half its length. It crosses rolling land and rapids
and is
navigable for about fifty kilometers inland from its exit
to the
sea near Cape Palmas.
The Sassandra River Basin has its source in the high
ground of
the north, where the Tiemba River joins the Férédougouba
River,
which flows from the Guinea highlands. It is joined by the
Bagbé,
Bafing, Nzo, Lobo, and Davo rivers and winds through
shifting
sandbars to form a narrow estuary, which is navigable for
about
eighty kilometers inland from the port of Sassandra.
The Bandama River, often referred to as the Bandama
Blanc, is
the longest in the country, joining the Bandama Rouge
(also known
as the Marahoué), Solomougou, Kan, and Nzi rivers over its
800-kilometer course. This large river system drains most
of
central Côte d'Ivoire before it flows into the Tagba
Lagoon
opposite Grand-Lahou. During rainy seasons, small craft
navigate
the Bandama for fifty or sixty kilometers inland.
Easternmost of the main rivers, the Comoé, formed by
the Leraba
and Gomonaba, has its sources in the Sikasso Plateau of
Burkina
Faso. It flows within a narrow 700-kilometer basin and
receives the
Kongo, and Iringou tributaries before winding among the
coastal
sandbars and emptying into the Ebrié Lagoon near
Grand-Bassam. The
Comoé is navigable for vessels of light draft for about
fifty
kilometers to Alépé.
Large dams were built in the 1960s and 1970s to control
the
flow of major rivers to the south. These projects created
reservoirs, now referred to as lakes bearing the names of
the dams-
-Buyo on the Sassandra, Kossou and Taabo on the Bandama,
and Ayamé
on the small Bia River in the southeast corner of the
country. Lake
Kossou is the largest of these, occupying more than 1,600
square
kilometers in the center of the country.
Data as of November 1988
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