{"id":356819,"date":"2026-02-26T14:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=356819"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:15:13","slug":"congo-lakes-lakes-mai-ndombe-and-tumba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/congo-lakes-lakes-mai-ndombe-and-tumba\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo Lakes &#8211; Lakes Mai Ndombe and Tumba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News:<\/strong> Two large lakes (Lakes Mai Ndombe and Tumba) in the Democratic Republic of Congo are releasing carbon that has been locked away for thousands of years in surrounding peatlands which could pose a threat to climate stability.<\/p>\n<h2>About Congo Lakes &#8211; Lakes Mai Ndombe and Tumba<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_356829\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-356829\" style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-356829\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Source-Britannica-1.jpg?resize=348%2C195&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Congo Lakes - Lakes Mai Ndombe and Tumba\" width=\"348\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Source-Britannica-1.jpg?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Source-Britannica-1.jpg?w=589&amp;ssl=1 589w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-356829\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; Britannica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>About Lake Mai Ndombe<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lake Mai Ndombe is <strong>Africa&#8217;s largest blackwater lake and forms part of the Congo River Basin.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Location:<\/strong> It is located in <strong>western Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li>It lies<strong>\u00a0within the\u00a0Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe\u00a0area, <\/strong>the <strong>largest Wetland of International Importance recognized by the\u00a0Ramsar Convention\u00a0<\/strong>in the world.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Size:<\/strong> It covers about <strong>2,300 sq. km<\/strong>.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It measures roughly<strong> 130 km in length<\/strong> and<strong> up to 40 km<\/strong>\u00a0in <strong>width.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Rivers associated with:<\/strong> The l<strong>ake drains southward through the Fimi River<\/strong> into the Kasai River.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Features:<\/strong> <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <strong>shallow in depth and irregular in shape.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has<strong> low, forested shores and can double or even triple in size during the rainy season.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<strong> bordered by vast swamp forests and largely undisturbed lowland rainforest<\/strong> growing atop deep peat deposits.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also <strong>characterised by dark \u201cblack water,\u201d <\/strong>caused by tannins and dissolved organic matter from decaying vegetation and peat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Main port: Inongo<\/strong> which is\u00a0located on its eastern shore,<strong> serves as the main port.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>About Lake Tumba<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Location:<\/strong> Lake Tumba is located in the<strong> northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo and forms part of the Congo River Basin.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It lies about <strong>120 km northwest of Lake Mai-Ndombe.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Size:<\/strong> The lake covers <strong>around 500 sq. km<\/strong>\u00a0and has a <strong>shallow depth of about 6\u201320 feet (2\u20136 m).<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Rivers associated with:<\/strong> It <strong>drains into the Congo River through the Irebu Channel<\/strong>, opposite the river\u2019s junction with the <strong>Ubangi River<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Features:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lake Tumba forest<\/strong> is the<strong> largest swamp forest in the world and the second largest wetland in the world.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Lake Tumba is<strong> surrounded by seasonally or permanently inundated forest.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The lake is<strong> extremely shallow and receives much of its nutrient input from small blackwater forest streams<\/strong> that flow from the surrounding, inundated swamps into the lake.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: Two large lakes (Lakes Mai Ndombe and Tumba) in the Democratic Republic of Congo are releasing carbon that has been locked away for thousands of years in surrounding peatlands which could pose a threat to climate stability. About Congo Lakes &#8211; Lakes Mai Ndombe and Tumba About Lake Mai Ndombe Lake Mai Ndombe is&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/congo-lakes-lakes-mai-ndombe-and-tumba\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Congo Lakes &#8211; Lakes Mai Ndombe and Tumba<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,4182,12039,11211],"tags":[11872,11853],"class_list":["post-356819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-environment","category-knolls","category-places-in-news","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-dd-news","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}