Lake Chiuta

Lake Chiuta is a shallow lake on the border between Malawi and Mozambique. It lies to the north of Lake Chilwa and to the south of Lake Amaramba, which has no outlet, and the lakes are separated by a sandy ridge. Both lakes lie in a graben which runs northeast–southwest, east of the main African Rift Valley.

Lake Chiuta is 3–4 meters deep and ranges in size from 25 to 130 square kilometers, depending on the season and rainfall. Lake Chiuta and Amaramba is intermittently linked to the Lugenda River, a tributary of the Ruvuma River.

Lake Chiuta can desiccate completely (Owen et al. 198?)

Mean Depth: 1.13 m / average surface area: 199 km2 / average volume: 0.225 km3 / encatchment area: 1755 km2 (Ojda 1994)

Predominant commercial fish species are Oreochromis shiranus shiranus (Chambo), Clarias gariepinus (Mlamba), and Barbus paludinosus (Matemba). 37 fish species were recorded in total. (Ojda 1994)

Dominating aquatic macrophytes are Potamogeton welwitschii + Ceratophyllum demersum (submerged), Eleocharis dulcis, Oryza barthii, Vossia cuspidata, etc. (Ojda 1994)