| Togo lake | |
 | |
| Area type | The needle |
|---|---|
| State | Togo |
| Surface | 64 km² |
Togo lake is located in the Maritime Region.
To know
It is known for its abundance of fish and for the various water sports that are practiced there (such as water skiing).
The area is not very populated and there is little tourism. The economy is dependent on extensive agriculture and fishing, with purse seines used and fish sold in local towns. Coconuts are grown between the lake and the coast and there are plantations of coconut and oil palms in the floodplains north of the lake.
Geographical notes
Lake Togo is a coastal lake located in the southern Togo and separated by a narrow strip of land from the Gulf of Guinea. It is located in a vast swampy area with many lagoons that runs roughly from the Niger delta, in Nigeria up to the mouth of the Volta river, in Ghana. The lake, about 15 km long and 6 km wide, is the largest lake in the state.
It receives water from the Sio River to the southwest and various other small streams to the west and east, and the Haho River enters from the north. The lake is separated from the sea by a sand bank approximately one kilometer wide. The water exits to the east through a channel-like extension where it receives water from the nearby, smaller Vogan Lake, and continues into the lagoon system along the coast.
Flora and fauna
Lake Togo, along with the smaller nearby Vogan Lake and various coastal lagoons, makes up an important area for birds. They are surrounded by floodplains which are covered with typical floodplain grasses such as Phragmites and Typha and occur in wetter depressions. There are no mangroves because these lagoons are not tides. Sometimes when there is flood water in the lagoons, the aquatic lettuce.
The lake, wetlands, lagoons and coastal sands of this area provide stopping places for waterfowl and migrating terns along their routes along the western side of Africa. The fish in the lake are of both marine and fluvial origin and the most common species are tilapia and Chrysichthys goldfish. Invertebrates include the gastropod molluscs Pachymelania spp. and Tympanotonos fuscatus and the Farfantepenaeus duorarum crustaceans.
When to go
The climate on the coast of Togo is of an equatorial transitional type, with a doubling of the rainy season, a dry variant. The two wet periods are March-June / July and October.
Background
On July 5, 1884, the explorer Gustav Nachtigal and the religious leader of Togoville they signed the protectorate German near the lake.
The lake is bordered by a sacred forest where Pope John Paul II visited fetish priests in 1985.
Territories and tourist destinations
Urban centers
How to get
By car
It is about 20 km from the capital Lome and a little more from the border Ghanaian, is instead from the border with Benin about 35/40 km.
How to get around
By car
The entire fringe of Togo's coastal dunes is more or less densely inhabited; the southern shore of Lake Togo, bordered by the N2 national road, is semi-urbanized (mix of houses and gardens) with a greater density of habitat for two villages close to each other: Agbodrafo to the south point (facing Togoville) and Kpémé facing the southern end of the railway bridge over the lagoon
