Bangweulu (“where the water sky meets the sky”) is one of the world’s great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Bangweulu Flats or floodplain.
The Bangweulu system is fed by about seventeen rivers of which the Chambeshi (the source of the Congo River) is the largest, and is drained by the Luapula River. It is crucial to the economy and biodiversity of northern Zambia, and to the birdlife of a much larger region.
With a long axis of 75 km and a width of up to 40 km, Lake Bangweulu’s permanent open water surface is about 3,000 km2, which expands when its swamps and floodplains are in flood at the end of the rainy season in May. The combined area of the lake and wetlands reaches 15,000 km2. The lake has an average depth of only 4 m and a maximum depth of 10 m.
Postcards
1968 – Meijer Wormeveer N.V. (Type I)
