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Suriname River

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river in Suriname

Key facts

Country
Suriname
Source
Gran Rio and Pikin Rio
Coordinates
4°0′49″N 55°28′36″W / 4.01361°N 55.47667°W / 4.01361; -55.47667
Mouth
Atlantic Ocean
Location
Paramaribo
Elevation
0 m (0 ft)
Length
480 km (300 mi)
Basin size
16,500 km (6,400 sq mi)
Average
426 m /s (15,000 cu ft/s)
Minimum
20 m /s (710 cu ft/s)
Maximum
4,000 m /s (140,000 cu ft/s)
Waterbodies
Brokopondo Reservoir

via Wikipedia infobox

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Suriname River (Dutch: Surinamerivier) is 480 kilometres (300 mi) long and flows through the country of Suriname. Its sources are located in the Guiana Highlands on the border between the Wilhelmina Mountains and the Eilerts de Haan Mountains (where it is known as the Gran Rio). The source of the Upper Suriname River is at the confluence of the Gran Rio and Pikin Rio near the village of Goddo. The river continues shortly after the reservoir along Brokopondo as the Lower Suriname River. Than it flows Berg en Dal, the migrant communities Klaaskreek and Nieuw-Lombé, Jodensavanne, Carolina, Ornamibo and Domburg, before reaching the capital Paramaribo on the left bank and Meerzorg on the right bank. At Nieuw-Amsterdam it is joined by the Commewijne and immediately thereafter at the sandspit Braamspunt it flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

The river has several sets of rapids as well as a few dams, the largest of which is the Afobaka Dam. The river's flow is interrupted by the Brokopondo Reservoir, which therefore divides the river into two sections. The upstream section runs almost entirely through the Sipaliwini district, and the downstream section runs through the Brokopondo, Para, Commewijne, Wanica and Paramaribo districts.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Suriname River” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map

2 mapped locations