Coursing through the veins of the earth's crust, rivers are akin to the lifeblood that sustains much of our world today. Caring for our rivers is paramount as many are now in danger of completely vanishing or becoming so ill as to endanger vast communities.
The impact of seasonal changes on rivers already has immense consequences for a myriad of ecosystems. A David Attenborough nature documentary can reveal much of the rich flora and fauna that thrive in the surroundings of a healthy river and that die out or migrate in the face of a dying one. Parts of the Nile in Africa are ephemeral, providing seasonal flow that brings out lush greenery amidst vast areas of arid landscape. Wherever and whenever parts of the river dry out, insects and other small creatures do their best to go into hibernation while crocodiles, wildebeests, zebras, lions, elephants and a host of different species of birds either die out or manage to escape through migratory travel. Fortunately many of us do not live under such harsh circumstances and we all too often do not fully appreciate the true value of our rivers.
Among all of earth's environmental resources, water stands out as the most abundant, covering over 70% of our planet's surface. Unfortunately, 97% of it is salt water and often of limited use. More than three quarters of the remaining 3% is locked up in the polar ice caps and after accounting for groundwater, soil moisture and atmospheric water, what remains is a mere 0.02% of all the water on the planet that can be found in our freshwater lakes and rivers. With such an infinitesimal amount of global water, rivers may appear to be of limited value, yet they oftentimes carry the only drinkable water to many of us and make water most readily available for purposes of hygiene, sustaining agriculture and industry, hydroelectric power, waste disposal and transportation. Beyond providing usable water, a healthy river may also avail food and farming, a scenic delight and a host of recreational activities like swimming, boating and whitewater kayaking.
The song Orinoco Flow conjures up the magic of traveling along a river to different destinations and it remains poetic how the major rivers of the world have cradled human civilization. The beginnings of Egyptian agriculture depended on seasonal flooding along the Nile. The Mississippi, while serving a vast array of American towns and cities, now supports 12 million people and provides a habitat for 241 different species of fish along with 40% of America's migratory birds. In North America, the Delaware is also known to provide food for migrating birds while the Hudson is navigable beyond mountains. In the Middle East, the Euphrates and Tigris were home to ancient Mesopotamian civilization. In South America, major river ports like Iquitos in Peru and Manaus in Brazil are now trade centers that exchange forest products for outside goods. In Asia, the Indus supported prehistoric civilization and gave India it's name. The Ganges remains a sacred river to the Hindus while the Yangtze flows through the most fertile region in China called the Land of Rice and Fish.
Most of the major cities of the world are situated on riverbanks and the rivers themselves have defined the urban forms of these cities along with their associated neighborhoods. The Volga for instance, flows through the western part of Russia and its basin houses 11 of the largest Russian cities including the capital Moscow. The Volga delta is the largest estuary in Europe and is the only place in Russia to have pelicans, flamingos and lotuses. It is a prominent fishing ground and Astrakhan, at the delta, is the centre of Russia's caviar industry. Agriculture and trading have flourished with large quantities of wheat produced in the fertile river valley along with the mining of minerals like petroleum, natural gas, salt and potash.
Nature, through the hydrological cycle, has bestowed a variety of personalities to the many rivers of the world. Most develop different characteristics with aging and not all provide a youthful flow. Mature and aged rivers often provide vast alluvial deposits that make for fertile plains and encourage agriculture while youthful flow provides an important source of hydroelectric power that can drive rapid economic development. The sheer force of flow of a river can be both a boon and a bane to riparian communities. In the tropics youthful flow can discourage the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. Many endemic regions in Asia could well be freed of dengue and malaria for want of flowing water to replace stagnant sources. The same youthful flow in the African continent however, can harbor harmful organisms. River blindness, a condition caused by a worm that breeds in fast- flowing river water, is endemic to Africa with 18 million infected, 300,000 blind and almost 125 million at risk. Flooding in an overly exuberant river can increase fertile plains yet can also lead to catastrophic consequences, destroying the lives of many and displacing whole communities. The Mississippi is well known for great flooding while summer monsoon flooding of the Brahmaputra causes tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths annually in Bangladesh. The Yangtze flooding in China in 1931 that killed 3.7 million people is ranked as one of the worst natural disasters to humanity.
As early as 6th century B.C., Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations began managing river water in unique ways that encouraged flood control and irrigation. In many parts of the middle east and modern Iran, underground channels or qanats were constructed to move water over great distances. To support industrial activity in the 18th and 19th centuries, Britain devised a network of canals that spanned 4,000 miles of navigable waterways and that transported 30 million tons of freight each year. In China, small earth dams have been a traditional method of water capture and storage. The retained water is used for fishponds, for agriculture and for generating hydroelectric power that supports whole communities. The 1960's saw the rise of massive dams like the Aswan on the Nile in Egypt. In Ghana, president Nkrumah promoted the Akosombo dam as an instrument for national economic transformation. Today, dams are the most visible signs of human intervention in river water management and just two decades ago, there were already more than 36,500 dams world-wide that exceeded 15 metres in height. Purposes of flood control, hydroelectric power generation, increased irrigated areas and water supply for human use, have all been well served. But many of these activities occur upstream and often result in water deficiencies and other problems downstream. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze for instance, has already caused the resettlement of more than 1 million people.
Rivers traverse entire regions and the World Resources Institute estimates that 214 river basins, accommodating 40% of the world's population and covering more than 50% of the Earth's land area, are shared by two or more countries. Reductions in the quantity of river water occur when the water is either withdrawn and transported elsewhere or is directly consumed by upstream activities. Serious conflicts of interest have arisen and continue to arise over river water disparities. The South East Anatolia Development Project initiated by Turkey in 1983 raised regional tensions involving 13 dams on the Tigris and Euphrates that compromised the water development plans of Syria and Iraq further downstream. Syria and Iraq had also already come close to war in 1975 when Syria reduced the flow of the Euphrates to fill its Ath-Thawrah dam.
Upstream activity often puts downstream regions at risk of less river water and poorer quality water that can severely damage the vitality of downstream communities. The quality of river water is affected by what goes into the river and how it's upstream water is used before returning downstream. Acid rain comes about when rainwater falls through pollutant sulphur and nitrogen-based gases that are formed when fuel is burnt. This type of rain leaches aluminium and other poisonous compounds from soil into rivers, killing small fish and other wildlife. Nitrates from animal wastes and artificial fertilizers are the principal agricultural pollutants that, along with pesticides, can also seep into rivers and make them unhealthy. Specific nitrate compounds have been implicated in gastric cancers, fetal malformations and blood poisoning. In many European rivers, nitrate levels consistently rose for more than 30 years and reached dangerous levels before corrective action was instituted. River water that is used for cooling purposes in factories and power stations may return back to its source river in fairly equal quantities to what was withdrawn. Yet the quality of the return flow is often poor enough to limit re-use of the water further down the river's course.
Fatal diseases like typhoid and cholera can often be linked to pathogens in faecal matter that enters into rivers via untreated sewage. Cholera arrived in the United Kingdom in 1831 and it's epidemics in London could be correlated with the poor condition of the Thames that was used as an open sewer. Today, industrial waste and toxic chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls still manage to find their way into rivers while even pharmaceutical byproducts and hormones have been found in drinking water. It is shocking that almost half of China's industrial waste and sewage ends up in the Yangtze with garbage heaps, pig waste and discharge from factories, hospitals and mines, including some that could even be radioactive, all lying at the bottom of the Three Gorges Dam reservoir. Today, an estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide do not have access to clean river water and almost 10,000 children in third world countries die each day due to illnesses contracted from river impurities.
The World Wildlife Fund has highlighted the 10-most threatened rivers as being the Salween, Danube, La Plata, Mekong, Indus, Nile, Ganges, Rio-Grande, Murray-Darling, and the Yangtze. The main factors blamed for their ill health are climate change, pollution, dams and infrastructure, excessive water extraction, invasive species and over-fishing. These rivers span vast areas and we all have a part to play in restoring their health. One way is to support a river initiative.
The vitality of not just single nations but entire transnational regions is so dependent on consistent river health that many river initiatives have arisen and are now of great priority. Discussions in Europe began in the 1950's over France and Germany traditionally discharging heavy pollution loads into the Rhine upstream and leaving the Netherlands to pick up the tab for drinking water downstream. The three have since incorporated effluent charges into their water management policies with Germany also imposing pollution charges to errant companies. The International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine Against Pollution was set up in 1963 followed by the Rhine Action Program in 1986 that aimed to produce drinkable water, reduce sediment loads and create conditions favorable to the return of indigenous aquatic life. The Danube, another of Europe's commercially important rivers that flows through more than 12 nations, along with the Rhine, was severely affected by chemical pollution until recent international cooperation with clean-ups.
Many developed countries have now incorporated laws to protect water quality. Government agencies with enforcement powers to protect rivers include the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States and the National Rivers Authority in England and Wales. In keeping with political boundaries that have also long been superimposed on river basins, river basin planning provides an integrative approach to the management of river basins. In the United States, the Tennessee Valley Authority was created in 1933 and charged by Franklin Roosevelt with managing the Tennessee River drainage basin and its adjoining territory for the "general social and economic welfare of the nation". Similar initiatives have sprouted in Africa, where the Nile's river basin is shared by 12 nations and the Congo's by 11. These are growing in their impact on the sustainable development of shared river basins.
It is heartening to know that the progressive models bringing success in developed countries can, and are being applied to developing ones. The growing pressure on global river water supplies that first accelerated sharply in the 20th century is expected to continue into the 21st century especially in light of global warming, commercial indifference and varied water management plans. Today, only 21 of the world's 177 longest rivers are free to flow from source to sea without hindrance from dams. Per capita withdrawals continue to increase, encouraged by the inter-related processes of urbanization and industrialization.
An important realization is that by 2025, 52 countries housing two thirds of the world's population, are likely to experience water shortages. Correction, conservation and recycling can be our imprint on the lifeblood of our planet but we all need to act now.
Interesting online reads:
1) World's top 10 rivers at risk
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/worldstop10riv ersatriskfinalmarch13_1.pdf
2) The peril of our world's rivers
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/death -of-the-worlds-rivers-469597.html
3) Drought in China's longest river leaves millions short of drinking water
http://chinaview.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/china s-longest-river-at-lowest-in-142-years/
4) China's river water crisis
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-05/30/ content_604228.htm
5) Dangerous levels of pollution on the Yangtze
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1802-ya ngtze-river-pollution-at-dangerous-levels.html
6) Cocaine in Italy's biggest river
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/0 8/68434
7) Profiles of the world's great rivers http://cgee.hamline.edu/rivers/Resources/river_profi les/index.html
8) International day of action for rivers
http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/day-of-a ction
9) Canada's official rivers day http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0606 _030606_riversday.html
10) International cooperation on the Danube
http://greenhorizon.rec.org/archive/GH-2.1.pdf
11) Britain cracks down on water company river polluters
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/ar ticle4493317.ece
12) Saving the Murray-Darling
http://www.environment.gov.au/water/md b/lmi.html
13) Cleaning up the Singapore river
http://www.marshallcavendish.com/marshallcavend ish/attachment/education/sg/students/student_resourc es/secondary/chemistry/comp_chemistry_for_o_level_sc i/9810191464/unit1802.pdf
14) Arguing for dam removal
http://internationalrivers.org/node/3636
15) Floating markets in the Mekong delta
http://knol.google.com/k/thuan-nguyen-hoang/the -mekong-delta-in-vietnam-lifes-and/25lgke3rt3f2g/3#