Rivers are one of the most important and indispensable natural resources for human civilization.
Because of the rivers, the human race not only survived, but also thrived.
However, the modern discourse on development views rivers as only commodities that can be exploited, and the inevitable result is that these rivers die quickly.
And some scientists are increasingly asking the question: Will humans destroy their rivers within a few decades?
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), climate change, pollution, over-extraction and development are killing some of the world's most famous rivers, including China's Yangtze, Indo-Gangetic and Africa's Nile.
In its 2007 report on "The World's 10 Most Vulnerable Rivers," the Geneva-based organization says many rivers may dry up, affecting hundreds of millions of people and killing unique aquatic life.
When rivers die, millions lose their livelihoods, biodiversity is destroyed on a large scale, and the result: less fresh water and less agriculture, leading to lower food security.
According to Reuters (Reuters), the report indicated that some rivers need greater protection, such as the Rio Grande in the United States, the Mekong and Indus in Asia, the Danube in Europe, La Plata in South America, and Murray Darling in Australia.
A 2007 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature warned against continuing human causes for the death of rivers (Al-Jazeera)
Rivers are on their way to death
In March 2022, the United Nations warned that the level of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq is decreasing by 73 percent, due to the lack of rain and its impact on the levels of the two rivers, as well as Iran's diversion of the course of rivers heading towards Iraq.
In this regard, the Iraqi Minister of Water Resources says, "Iran has changed the course of the rivers and is working to deprive Iraq of water."
As for the Barada River in Damascus, which was called in the past “Paradise” meaning “Paradise,” and many Arab poets sang about it, its waters dried up and polluted what was left of it.
Although climate change has played a major role in the drying up of the river, it has become a drain for sewage and agricultural waste and waste from industrial facilities, restaurants and cafes that have sprung up on its edges.
Recently, after Ethiopia started building the Renaissance Dam on the Nile River since 2011, the two downstream countries - Egypt and Sudan - are trying to develop plans to deal with the decrease in their water shares during the filling period of the dam and afterwards.
And France24 reported that the Rio Grande River, which separates Mexico from the United States, has since the spring of 2018 turned into a semi-desert for tens of kilometers, and although the Rio Grande is a water of melting snow, its stock is seriously threatened.
The overuse of a number of rivers around the world has almost dried up (Shutterstock)
According to a report published by the Interesting Engineering website, a number of rivers around the world are being so overused that they have almost dried up before they even reach their mouth at sea.
One striking example provided by Dr Gwen Reese, a hydrologist at the UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology, is the Chinese Yellow River.
If we talk about China as a whole, the statistics reveal that out of 50,000 rivers, 28,000 have completely dried up in the past 20 years.
The reason behind this is economic growth and to feed the growing population through agriculture.
Researchers from the US-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) assessed the flow in 925 rivers, nearly 75% of the world's running water supply, between 1948 and 2004.
According to Igwu Dai, a scientist at NCAR and lead author of the paper published in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate, a third of the rivers have recorded a change in flow and most of them are drier, including These are the Niger River in West Africa, the Ganges River in South Asia and the Yellow River in China.
Climate change, agriculture, population growth and energy struggle are causes of the death of rivers (Anatolia)
Why do rivers lose their water?
Climate change
A report by SciDev stated that researchers attribute rivers' water loss to several possible reasons, including the construction of dams and the use of water in agriculture.
But in many cases the decrease in flow is due to climate change, which is changing rainfall patterns and increasing evaporation due to higher temperatures, as there is a direct relationship between global temperature and the rate of evaporation from rivers.
The higher the former, the higher the latter.
In contrast also, the reduced flow of rivers affects the world's climate.
If less fresh water is discharged into the oceans, it becomes more salty, which may affect salinity and temperature, which are driven by ocean circulation patterns, which in turn play a major cause of climate regulation.
Agriculture
70% of the world's fresh water is used in agricultural activities.
This means that more farming requires more water use.
With the ever-increasing population and its demand for agricultural products, this could be a worrisome reason for the drying up of rivers.
Population growth
According to the current annual population growth rate, it is estimated that more than 80 million new breaths are added to the world every year, and the world population is expected to rise to more than 9 billion by 2050. Looking at these numbers, it is clear that the rate of demand for water use It will only rise to the top in the future.
This is the Tigris River after the water was reserved for it.
Look good enough to know what is waiting for you.
#Al-Nahda Dam pic.twitter.com/GZiRR1HeOS
— MOHAMED💪ABDELRAHMAN👈 (@mohamed041979) May 8, 2022
Energy and its related conflict
Hydroelectric dams are built on shared rivers, often diverting water around parts of the river, eventually leaving it dry.
This scenario is not limited to a specific country or countries only, but is the same all over the world.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Ganges basin accounts for nearly a third of India's land area, and one in 12 people in the world depend on this river for activities such as fishing and agriculture.
But the tributaries that flow into the Ganges are drying up as barrages divert large amounts of water for irrigation.
Climate change will have a serious impact on the river as the glaciers, which account for 30-40% of the Ganges' water, recede.
Rivers do not reach downstream due to overuse
Rivers are the world's main source of fresh water, yet about half of the available supplies are actually being consumed.
These are some of the most important rivers in the world from the American West to China and from Australia to India, which are drying up due to industry, agriculture and drinking water, obviously.
Colorado River
The Colorado River in the United States and Mexico is one of the most used waterways in the world. It supplies water to about 30 million people. A number of dams are being built along a belt of 2,333 km in length.
According to its natural system, the river flows all the way directly from the high plains of the western United States to the Gulf of California in Mexico.
Because the river is exploited along the way for various reasons, including agriculture, industry and local use, it hardly reaches the ocean.
rio grande river
The Rio Grande flows along the US-Mexico border, but is drying up due to climate change.
All you will find today in the course of the great river that once flowed is dust and sand instead of water.
Indus River
The Indus River is the main source of fresh water for the majority of Pakistan, a rapidly growing country of nearly 200 million people.
The river water is overused in various agricultural, industrial and domestic activities.
About 90% of agricultural activities depend on its water.
The river has been exploited in such a way that it actually stops flowing into the ocean at Karachi Harbour, once home to various lush and diverse ecosystems that support a wide range of species, including endangered dolphins and other important fisheries.
yellow river
The Yellow River is the second longest river in China and the sixth longest river in the world and served as the cradle of the oldest known Chinese civilization.
However, since 1972 the river began to dry up a lot before reaching its mouth in the sea, the Yellow River, like other rivers, was used on a large scale for agriculture.
The worst-case scenario for the river occurred in 1997 when the lower Yellow River did not flow for approximately 226 days.
Resulting in the drying up of the ecologically rich delta.
Recently, the Chinese government has been making some conscious efforts to restore some water flow by strictly restricting farmers' use of its water.
Testa River
The Teesta River flows through Sikkim, an Indian state before joining the Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh.
This river is known as the lifeblood of Sikkim and has been exploited for irrigation and other uses.
As a result, it has largely dried up, fishermen can no longer make a living along its bank and thousands of farmers have lost their water supplies.
In addition, with the construction of many dams across the river, geologists have warned that the weight of sediment that accumulates as a result can also lead to natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Murray River
The Murray is the longest river in Australia and arguably the most important river that flows from the Australian Alps through the Inland Plains to the Indian Ocean near Adelaide.
The Murray Valley is the most productive agricultural region in Australia due to its river irrigation activities, in addition to being the source of 40% of Adelaide's drinking water.
Diversions and turbulence have significantly reduced the flow, resulting in a semi-arid situation.
keep the river
According to a report by the South Asia Journal, rivers do not "die" but rather are killed by man and negligence.
And so we must change the way we think about rivers, and before we talk about preserving rivers, we must learn to respect them first.
To do this, 4 slogans must be taken into account:
The river is not a drain
A river is not just a channel that takes water that falls on a watershed to the sea.
It performs many other functions in the ecosystem and on the planet.
It is supportive of aquatic life and ecosystem, has a life and character of its own and is part of the people's history and culture.
Only if we remember all this can we possibly respect the river and stop littering and polluting it.
The river must flow
Many consider drawing from the river the norm and leaving some water in it a necessary evil.
But the opposite is true, which is the need to respect the natural flow of the river.
What we need is not minimal flows but minimal interference with flows.
The river is an ecosystem in itself and is part of a larger ecosystem (Shutterstock)
The river must have space
Floods are a natural phenomenon that occurs from time to time and will continue to occur with varying degrees of severity and we must learn how to live with it and reduce the damage.
When floods come, the river needs to spread to accommodate it or it needs space.
If we continue to reduce the area available to the rivers, the consequences will be dire, and therefore the natural floodplains of the rivers must be respected.
A river is an ecosystem in and of itself and part of a larger ecosystem
We cannot protect or conserve a river unless the ecosystem as a whole is protected and preserved.
This calls for a reconsideration of lifestyles and our understanding of the components of 'development', which means, among other things, a rigorous re-examination of water demand.