From its mouth up to Kassa, at 119 kilometres (74 mi) the river is accessible to “C” type tugs pulling a 350 tonne barge.

[1] The villages located along the river supply Mbandaka with various food products, the most important being cassava chips, corn and palm oil.

[7] In May 2018 fifty people died when a motorized boat sank during a night voyage on the upper part of the river.

The boat was overloaded, and was travelling at night without lights from the village of Monkoto towards Mbandaka It sank 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from Wafanya.

Accidents such as this are common on the Congo waterways due to overloading of boats that are in poor condition, combined with lack of life jackets and many passengers who cannot swim.