[3] 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.

[4] In the south-east at Kampinda, a peninsula divides off a swampy inlet containing the Chimbwe Pools and a lagoon called Lake Cheshi.

[5] 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).

Except for birds and waterfowl, the wildlife on land and in the marshes, once extensive, has been reduced despite the existence of the Mweru Wantipa National Park.

The lake is only a few kilometres from the DR Congo border on its northern side and wars and conflicts in that country have caused many thousands of refugees to enter the district at Kaputa, putting pressure on resources.