Think of Indus disappearing from the world map. Such a phenomenon will hit thousands of people living directly on the river source and millions indirectly. It’s just the fear of the Indus disappearing. What if some of the world’s major rivers reach this extreme crisis point or suffer from severe pollution?
Yes that what is happening! And for this sorry state and threatening future of some of the major rivers blame dams, shipping, pollution and climate change, the environment group WWF claims.
The river “crisis” rival — climate change – is risking rivers, according to WWF’s ‘World’s Top 10 Rivers at Risk’ report. Five of these listed “top 10” rivers are in —
Asia — Yangtze, Mekong and Ganges,
Europe – Danube,
North America – Rio Grande.
Building of dams, over-extraction for drinking, industry and agriculture, invasion of species, pollution and shipping also contribute hugely towards this crisis, as assessed by the group.
Dr David Tickner, head of the freshwater programme at WWF-UK said,
The world is facing a massive freshwater crisis, which has the potential to be every bit as devastating as climate change. We need business leaders and governments to recognise that climate change is not the only urgent environmental issue that needs to be dealt with, and that they need to take notice of this freshwater emergency and act now, not later.