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The Daugava ( ), also known as the Western Dvina or the Väina River, is a large river rising in the Valdai Hills of Russia that flows through Belarus and Latvia into the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea. The Daugava rises close to the source of the Volga. It is in length, of which are in Latvia and in Russia. It is a westward-flowing river, tracing out a great south-bending curve as it passes through northern Belarus. The city of Ķekava is located 6 miles south of the west bank of the river.
Latvia's capital, Riga, bridges the river's estuary four times. Built on both riverbanks, the city centre is from the river's mouth and is a significant port.
The Finno-Ugric names Vēna (Livonian), Väinajõgi (Estonian), and Väinäjoki (Finnish language) all stem from Proto-Finnic *väin, which roughly translates to 'a large, peacefully rolling river'.
In medieval times, the Daugava was part of the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, an important route for the transport of furs from the north and of Byzantine silver from the south. The Riga area, inhabited by the Finnic languages-speaking Livs, became a key location of settlement and defence of the mouth of the Daugava at least as early as the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the now destroyed fort at Torņakalns on the west bank of the Daugava in present-day Riga.
From the end of the Livonian War great part of the Daugava formed the northeastern border of Duchy of Courland and Semigallia separating it initially from the Kingdom of Livonia, later Swedish Livonia and Riga Governorate. After the incorporation later in the Russian Empire the river formed a border between governorates of Courland on the western bank and Livonia and Vitebsk on the eastern bank.
From 1936 to 1939 Ķegums Hydroelectric Power Station was built on the Daugava river in Latvia. Pļaviņas Hydroelectric Power Station was put into operation in 1968 and Riga Hydroelectric Power Plant in 1974.
In Belarus, water pollution of the Daugava is considered moderately severe, with the chief sources being treated wastewater, fish-farming, and agricultural chemical runoff (such as herbicides, pesticides, nitrates, and phosphates).
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