The Lempa River ( es, Río Lempa) is a river in
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
.
Geography
Its sources are located in between the
Sierra Madre
Sierra Madre (Spanish, 'mother mountain range') may refer to:
Places and mountains Mexico
*Sierra Madre Occidental, a mountain range in northwestern Mexico and southern Arizona
*Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range in northeastern Mexico
*S ...
and the
Sierra del Merendón in southern
Guatemala, near the town of
Olopa.
In Guatemala the river is called ''Río Olopa'' and flows southwards for before entering
Honduras and changing its name to Lempa river at . In Honduras it flows through
Ocotepeque Department for , and crosses the border with
El Salvador at the town of
Citalá () in the department of
Chalatenango. The river continues its course for another in El Salvador, flowing in a generally southwards direction until it reaches the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
in the department of
San Vicente.
The river forms a small part of the international boundary between El Salvador and Honduras.
The river's
watershed covers , of which (56 percent) is in El Salvador, in Honduras and in Guatemala.
Forty-nine percent of El Salvador's territory is covered by the Lempa river basin,
and 77.5 percent of the Salvadoran population lives in cities, towns, and villages that are in its basin, including the capital city of
San Salvador.
Hydroelectricity
There are several hydroelectric dams along the river. In El Salvador there is the Guayojo dam, the
Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Dam, the 5 de Noviembre dam, and the 15 de Septiembre dam which can be easily seen from the
Pan-American highway.
See also
*
List of rivers of Guatemala
This is a list of rivers in Guatemala arranged by drainage basin. This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name.
Gulf of Mexico
The following rivers flow into the Grijalva River in ...
*
List of rivers of Honduras
*
List of rivers of El Salvador
This is a list of rivers in El Salvador.
El Salvador has 58 river basins which all drain to the Pacific Ocean. The total amount of water discharged into the Pacific is 19 million m³ in a normal year.
Additionally, there are several endorheic ba ...
*
List of rivers of the Americas by coastline
References
{{Authority control
Rivers of El Salvador
Rivers of Guatemala
Rivers of Honduras
International rivers of North America
El Salvador–Honduras border
Border rivers