Inga Falls

Giant rapids

Falls have formed in a sharp bend of Congo River – the second largest river of the world by volume of water and tenth longest in the world. Discharge of the river is 42,476 m³/s, maximum recorded volume of flow has been 70,793 m³/s. Only Amazon is more powerful – but a lot more powerful, with four – five times more water!

Well before Kinshasa Congo River becomes wide as a lake: the flow of the giant river slows down and the width reaches 23 km. This is Pool Malebo – the last halt of waters before the river has reached Crystal Mountains where have formed Livingstone Falls.

Livingstone Falls are series of rapids between Kinshasa and Matadi. Here Congo over the distance of 340 km is passing over 32 large rapids with a total drop of 260 m. The giant river often is squeezed in unbelievably narrow channel – sometimes even less than 260 m wide – and is meandering between the mountain ranges.

Inga Falls belong to Livingstone Falls and are located in the lower part (but not the lowest) of it. It is hard to tell the correct width of these falls as the width of river throughout the rapids fluctuates from 260 m to more than 4 km. Impressive threshold of rapids exactly at a sharp bend of Congo is 3.6 km wide.

Livingstone Falls for centuries obstructed colonisation of Central Africa. They were impassable with ships and boats.

No wonder – in the mighty river form more than 10 m wide whirlpools, there are countless cliffs and speed of the stream often reaches 50 km/h. The stream has gnawed deep in the rock – this is the deepest riverbed in the world with depth exceeding 230 m. There are technically deeper rivers in the world but their riverbeds have been formed by other factors, such as glaciers.

In some locations in Livingstone Falls there are underwater waterfalls, where the stream passes rock thresholds, speeds up and falls deep in canyons invisible above the water.

Unique fish

Congo River here is unique from biological point of view. In this giant, fast, extremely deep stream live fishes which have not been found anywhere else in the world. In total here have been found more than 300 species of fish but most likely there are many more still to be discovered.

Here have been found deep water fishes which during their life have never seen the light. Some species of fish differ in each shore of the river – the powerful current in the middle has divided the populations and these fishes for generations have not crossed the river.

Hydroelectric plants

Nowadays part of the Congo stream does not reach Inga Falls. There has been made artificial channel diverting the stream to hydroelectric dams: Inga I (350 MW) and Inga II (1,424 MW). Major part of the stream still flows through the falls, securing the preservation of a natural migration path for local river fauna.

The power of stream in Livingstone Falls theoretically could cover the electricity needs for major part of Africa. Thanks to the even flow of Congo throughout the year there is no need to create large artificial lake and not much land is flooded.

Thus developers are eager to continue – there are planned two more dams in Inga Falls. Inga III is planned to have output up to 3,500 MW but the "Great Inga Final Stage" – 39,000 MW. Great Inga project might be the most powerful hydropower plant of the world.

This plan is much criticised due to high costs, potential impact on local ecology and finally – due to the extreme costs of connecting this plant to international grid of electricity – it is assessed that these connections may cost several times more than the plants themselves.

Let’s hope that people of Congo will find a way to preserve the magnificent Inga Falls and whole Livingstone Falls.

References

1. The Astonishing Livingstone Falls, TravelDope.net. Accessed on November 10, 2010.
2. Evolution in the Deepest River in the World, Smithsonian.com. Accessed November 17, 2010.