The Nyamagana River rises in the north of Cibitoke Province near the border with Rwanda.

[5] The Nyamagana watershed has one of the highest erosion rates in the Ruzizi plain at 108 tonnes per hectare per year.

[8] In August 2022 a project underway in the Kivumvu and Kagimbu collines involved construction of an intake and a transfer canal to carry water from the Muhira River to the Nyamagana irrigation network.

[9] Gold miners use the Nyamagana, Muhira, Kaburantwa and Kagunuzi rivers in the provinces of Cibitoke, Bubanza and Kayanza to wash their products; builders extract rubble, gravel and sand for construction from the rivers; and farmers weaken their banks by failing to leave a 5 metres (16 ft) strip of uncultivated land along the banks.

Tree seedlings had been planted to prevent erosion of the river banks, but had been swept away by the landslides.

All trade between the communes came to a halt, children were forced to skip school and patients could not get care.