Climat – fdc – en

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The Congo basin represents one of the most marked depressions to be found between the Sahara to its north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west. It also includes the East African lakes to the east. Tributaries flow down slopes that vary from 900 to 1,500 feet into a central depression that forms the basin. It measures more than 1,200 miles north to south – from the Congo-Lake Chad watershed to the Angolan plateaus. West to east – from the Atlantic to the Nile-Congo watershed – it also measures 1,200 miles.

Hydrology

The Congo River's flow and water levels are affected by the rains year round. It is the effects of rainfall throughout the regions whose rivers and tributaries contribute to the Congo River that influence the fluctuations in the flow of the river. However, because the Congo basin is an immense area, the weather pattern in one particular region will not have much effect on the river's overall levels.

The Congo River is a potentially rich source of hydroelectric power. However, it is estimated that currently it represents only one-sixth of the world's known resources since the potential is not actually being exploited. So far, only two hydroelectric projects have been started in DRC , the Inga I and Inga II. But even now, these two sites provide more power than DRC is able to consume at present.

The Congo Basin's climate is considered to be equatorial. This results in vegetation that is characterized as densely forested.

Lake Tanganyika is a large lake in central Africa (3° 20' to 8° 48' South and from 29° 5' to 31° 15' East). It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia.[2] The lake is divided between four countries – Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Zambia, with the DRC (45%) and Tanzania (41%) possessing the majority of the lake. The water flows into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Congo is situated at the heart of the west-central portion of sub-Saharan Africa and is bounded by (clockwise from the southwest) Angola, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, the Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania across Lake Tanganyika, and Zambia. The country straddles the Equator, with one-third to the north and two-thirds to the south. The size of Congo, 2,345,408 square kilometres (905,567 sq mi), is comparable to that of Western Europe.

Flora and fauna

The Congo River (also known as the Zaire) is over 2,720 miles (4,375 km) long. It is the fifth-longest river in the world, and the second longest in Africa – second only to the Nile River in Northeastern Africa. The Congo River flows primarily through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the People's Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, and partially through Zambia, Angola, Cameroon, and Tanzania. The Congo ranges in width from 0.5 to 10 miles (0.8 to 16 km) depending on the location and time of year.