Bangweulu — 'where the water sky meets the sky' — is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising
Lake Bangweulu, the
Bangweulu Swamps and the
Bangweulu Flats or floodplain. Situated in the upper
Congo River basin in
Zambia, the Bangweulu system covers an almost completely flat area roughly the size of
Connecticut or
East Anglia, at an elevation of 1,140 m straddling Zambia's
Luapula Province and
Northern Province. It is crucial to the economy and biodiversity of northern Zambia, and to the birdlife of a much larger region, and faces
environmental stress and
conservation issues.