Lake Togo ''( French: Lac Togo)'' is the largest part of a

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

, separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow coastal strip. It is shallow and a popular location for

water sport Water sports or aquatic sports are sport activities conducted on waterbodies, and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants. On the water * Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races * Boatin ...

s. Towns on the lake's shore include Agbodrafo and Togoville. Transport on the lake is generally by

pirogue A pirogue ( or ), also called a piragua or piraga, is any of various small boats, particularly dugouts and native canoes. The word is French and is derived from Spanish , which comes from the Carib '. Description The term 'pirogue' does n ...

Lake Togo Origin

Lake Togo is about long, wide and 64 km² in area. It receives water from the Sio River in the southwest and various other smaller streams to the west and east and the Haho River enters from the north. The lake is separated from the sea by a sandbar a kilometre or so wide. Water exits to the east through a canal-like extension where it receives water from the nearby, smaller Lake Vogan, and continues into the lagoonal system along the coast. A main road traverses the coast to the south of the lake and local roads circle the lake, connecting the small villages. The area is not heavily populated and there is little tourism. The economy depends on extensive agriculture and fishing, with

seine net Seine fishing (or seine-haul fishing; ) is a method of fishing that employs a surrounding net, called a seine, that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats. Seine nets can be de ...

s being 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 ''Elaeis'' () is a genus of palms containing two species, called oil palms. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African oil palm ''Elaeis guineensis'' (the species name ''guineensis'' referring to its cou ...

on the flood plains to the north of the lake.

Wildlife

Lake Togo, together with the nearby smaller Lake Vogan and various coastal lagoons, makes up an important area for birds. They are surrounded by floodplains which are covered with typical floodplain grasses, and ''

Phragmites ''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial reed grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Taxonomy The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, maintained by Kew Garden in L ...

'' and '' Typha'' occur in wetter depressions. There are no mangroves because these lagoons are not tidal. At times when flood water is present in the lagoons, the fast-growing water cabbage (''Pistia stratiotes'') appears. The lake, wetlands, lagoons and coastal sands of this area provide resting places for migrant water birds and terns on their routes down the west side of Africa. Fish in the lake are of both marine and riverine origins, and the most common species are ''

Tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...

'' and the carfish ''

Chrysichthys ''Chrysichthys'' is a genus of claroteid catfishes native to Africa. Two fossil species are known. ''Chrysichthys macrotis'', Van Neer, 1994, is known from the Miocene-Pliocene of the Albertine Rift in Uganda and ''Chrysichthys mahengeensis'', ...

''. Invertebrates include the gastropod molluscs '' Pachymelania'' spp. and '' Tympanotonos fuscatus'', and the crustaceans '' Farfantepenaeus duorarum'' and '' Callinectes latimanus''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Togo Bodies of water of Togo Lagoons of Africa