River · Ivory Coast
Bandama
Bandama is the longest river in Côte d'Ivoire. It starts in the dry north, crosses the whole country from top to bottom and ends in the Tagba lagoon near Grand-Lahou, by the Gulf of Guinea.
Picture credit: BorisAhonon (CC BY-SA 4.0) · BorisAhonon (CC BY-SA 4.0) · BorisAhonon (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Bandama?
The river starts here: Dry hill country in the north of Côte d'Ivoire.
It ends in the Tagba lagoon, Gulf of Guinea near Grand-Lahou.
Countries on the river: the Ivory Coast.
The story behind it
Travelling down the Bandama is like travelling through several landscapes at once. In the north the river crosses dry savanna, where the water shrinks in the hot months and cattle gather at the last pools. In the middle of the country it is stopped by a great dam, and behind it lies the wide Lake Kossou, a reservoir that makes electricity and where fishers set out in the early morning. Further south the banks grow green and steamy, with oil palms, cocoa farms and forest. Hippos still live in some quiet stretches, and kingfishers flash blue over the surface. At the end the river slides into the Tagba lagoon near the old town of Grand-Lahou, where fresh water and salty sea water mix among the mangroves.
Questions children ask
How long is the Bandama?
The Bandama is about 800 kilometres long. Its whole course lies in one country, and no other river of Côte d'Ivoire travels so far.
Which countries does the Bandama flow through?
It flows only through Côte d'Ivoire, in West Africa. On its way it links the dry savanna of the north with the green coast in the south.
Where does the Bandama flow into?
It ends in the Tagba lagoon at Grand-Lahou. From there the water reaches the Gulf of Guinea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean.
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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