Lake · Burkina Faso
Lake Bam
Lake Bam is a long, narrow lake near the town of Kongoussi in Burkina Faso. It is the country's largest natural body of water, but it has been getting smaller for many years.
Picture credit: Marco Schmidt (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Lake Bam?
Countries on its shores: Burkina Faso.
Largest lake of: Burkina Faso.
Middle of the lake: 13.40° N, 1.52° W
The story behind it
Lake Bam stretches for about 20 km, but on average it is no more than 800 metres wide. It lies in a dry region where the dry season lasts seven to nine months, so its water is very precious. About 800 fishers catch fish such as Nile tilapia here. Along the shore, farmers grow vegetables, especially green beans, and use more than 2 000 motor pumps to water their fields. Nile crocodiles live in the lake, and herons and whistling ducks come to feed. But the lake is in danger. Sand and soil wash into it, so it gets shallower, and it is slowly drying up. Satellite pictures show that it covered about 8.5 km² in 1986, but only about 3.5 km² in 2014. Since 2009, the lake and its surroundings have been a protected wetland of international importance, a so-called Ramsar site.
Find it on the globe
Lake Bam is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Lake Bam?
Its size changes and it has been shrinking: satellite pictures showed about 8.5 km² in 1986 and only about 3.5 km² in 2014. It is about 20 km long but mostly less than 800 metres wide.
Is Lake Bam the largest lake in Burkina Faso?
Yes, it is called the largest natural body of water in Burkina Faso. Thousands of people in the region depend on it for fishing and farming.
Why is Lake Bam getting smaller?
Sand and soil wash into the lake from the fields around it, so it becomes shallower. The lake is slowly drying up, which is a danger for the fish, the farms and the cattle that drink there.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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