The Tshopo basin has an area of about 17,200 square kilometres (6,600 sq mi), mostly covered by Guinean-Congolian rainforests.

[6] A hydroelectric power plant was built at the Tshopo River Falls to the north of Kisangani in the 1950s, causing the local extinction of Inversodicraea congolana at one of the two sites in the world where it was found.

[8] In 2013 Belgium's Minister for Cooperation and Development Jean-Pascal Labille [fr] and the Orientale Province governor Jean Bamanisa reopened the Tshopo hydroelectric facility after it had been closed for rehabilitation.

[9] A truss bridge was built over the fall in 1968, providing a route for farmers from the northeast to access the city.

It fell into disrepair, and in 2014 was replaced by a 163 metres (535 ft) steel panel bridge with a single lane that could carry vehicles up to 41 tons.