Kongou Falls, Waterfall in Ivindo National Park, Gabon

Kongou Falls is a waterfall in Ivindo National Park that drops across multiple tiers to create a series of cascades in the surrounding forest. The Ivindo River flows with considerable power here, and viewing platforms allow visitors to experience the force and scale of the water as it tumbles down.

Plans for a hydroelectric dam threatened the falls in the early 2000s, but local communities and environmental groups successfully opposed the project. This opposition protected the river from significant alteration and helped preserve the forest ecosystem surrounding it.

The falls lie in Ivindo National Park, created in 2002 to protect this biologically diverse stretch of the Ivindo River. The river here is a major centre of fish biodiversity, and the park's protection covers the falls and the forest around them. The name Kongou is also written Koungou in French sources.

The falls sit in Ivindo National Park, about 42 km southwest of Makokou, the Ogowe-Ivindo provincial capital, and some 350 km east of Libreville. The Ivindo River carries about 900 m³ per second on average, rising to roughly 2,700 m³/s in flood, so time a visit for lower water. The cataract is about 3,200 m wide and 56 m high, split by islands into many channels and cascades.

The falls are split by numerous islands into countless small and large streams, ledges and cascades, and some trees grow directly in the falling water, so the cataract and the tropical forest form one continuous mass. The river's flow can reach 2,700 cubic metres per second during floods, against an average of 900.