Lake Mweru Wantipa

Lake Mweru Wantipa
The muddy colour of the shallow lake, centre, contrasts with the very deep and dark blue Lake Tanganyika (right) and the not-so-deep, greenish Lake Mweru (left). Source:NASA
Location	Northern Province
Coordinates	8°42′S 29°46′E / 8.700°S 29.767°E / -8.700; 29.767Coordinates: 8°42′S 29°46′E / 8.700°S 29.767°E / -8.700; 29.767
Basin countries	Zambia
Max. length	65 km (40 mi)
Max. width	20 km (12 mi)
Surface area	1,500 km2 (580 sq mi) (2005) dry (1916)
Average depth	2 m (6 ft 7 in)
Max. depth	5 m (16 ft)
Settlements	Kaputa

Lake Mweru Wantipa or Mweru-wa-Ntipa meaning "muddy lake" (also called 'Mweru Marsh') is a lake and swamp system in the Northern Province of Zambia. It has been regarded in the past as something of mystery, displaying fluctuations in water level and salinity which were not entirely explained by variation in rainfall levels; it has been known to dry out almost completely. This is compounded by its remoteness and it not receiving the same attention from geographers and geologists as its larger and more accessible neighbours, Lake Tanganyika, 25 km east, and Lake Mweru, 40 km west, with which its name is sometimes confused.

Lake Mweru Wantipa is a rift valley lake lying in a branch of the East African Rift, running from the Luapula River to Lake Tanganyika. There are some hot springs characteristics of a rift valley to the east. Its water is muddy in appearance, at times appearing reddish and 'slightly oily'. In the local dialect "wa ntipa" means "with mud", hence "Mweru Wantipa" distinguishes it from its bigger neighbour, Lake Mweru, which has clearer water.

Rivers and streams, none very large, flow into Lake Mweru Wantipa and its swamps from the Mporokoso plateau about 32 km south, and the hills to the north-east in DR Congo. It was thought to drain via its south-western swamps and a dambo called the Mofwe into the Kalungwishi River, which flows into Lake Mweru. However, at the junction of the Kalungwishi and the Mofwe, the elevation is 942 m but the surface of the lake is at only 932 m. It is evident that the Kalungwishi overflows in the rainy season into Mweru Wantipa, but perhaps not vice versa, though one report in 1931 after very heavy rains reported a flood from the Mofwe into the Kalungwishi. Most of the time, though, Mweru Wantipa has no outlet and forms an isolated river basin.

Around 2005, Lake Mweru Wantipa's main north-east to south-west axis was about 65 km long and it was about 20 km wide, but a narrow branch extends roughly 30 km east from the northern end, giving a surface area of about 1500 km². In the south-east at Kampinda, a peninsula divides off a swampy inlet containing the Chimbwe Pools and a lagoon called Lake Cheshi. However at various times in the recent past it has been reported to be not a lake but a swamp with hardly any open water surface, and even to be a plain of dried out mud (littered with fish scales and bones, and the skeletons of dead crocodiles and hippos). These variations in open water surface occur not just within a single dry and rainy season cycle, but over years or decades. For instance it was reported as being a lake in 1890, 1897, 1911, 1919 and 1938, but a swamp in 1892, 1900–11, 1912–19, and 1922; and as having dried out around 1916. Its greatest depth has been reported as 5 m, but at times may be less than 1 m deep over most of its surface.