Inga Falls

Often it is announced that the largest waterfall of the world is Inga Falls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is not entirely true – Inga Falls is not a true waterfall, these are rapids falling per 96 m over the distance of 15 km. Nevertheless this is an extraordinary natural landmark.

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 a series of rapids between Kinshasa and Matadi. Here Congo over a distance of 340 km is passing over 32 large rapids with a total drop of 260 m. The giant river often is squeezed in an 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 the river throughout the rapids fluctuates from 260 m to more than 4 km. An impressive threshold of rapids exactly at a sharp bend of Congo is 3.6 km wide.

Livingstone Falls for centuries obstructed colonization 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 a 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 a 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 there 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). A 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 a major part of Africa. Thanks to the even flow of Congo throughout the year there is no need to create a 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 in the world.

This plan is much criticized due to high costs, the potential impact on local ecology and finally – due to the extreme costs of connecting this plant to the 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.

Inga Falls on the map

Location, GPS coordinates:	5.5275 S 13.6360 E
Categories:	Waterfalls, Rapids and whirlpools, Ecosystems
Values:	Geology, Visual, Biology
Rating:	(3.5 / 5)
Where is located?	Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bas-Congo, 40 km north-east from Matadi, on a sharp bend of Congo River

Landmarks of Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo belongs to least explored and most promising countries of the world regarding exciting landmarks. Last decades have been unfortunate in the history of this enormous country as it has gone through a series of devastating wars and anarchy periods scaring away the foreign explorers. Major part of the country is covered with impenetrable, very diverse equatorial jungle and crossed by large rivers. Jungle covers mountain ranges, base of volcanoes, surrounds barren inselbergs and precipices with countless high waterfalls.

Meteorological phenomena

Unusual weather conditions can happen in any place of the world. But there are locations where unusual meteorological phenomena are observed frequently – even every day.

There are not too many landmarks in this category – but several of them are highly unusual and unique.

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