Yangtze, Mekong, Nile, Rio Grande Among Rivers Facing Manifold Threats From Drought, Diversion - WP

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Climate change, pollution, over extraction of water and development are killing some of the world's most famous rivers including China's Yangtze, India's Ganges and Africa's Nile, conservation group WWF said on Tuesday. At the global launch of its report "World's Top 10 Rivers at Risk," the Geneva-based group said many rivers could dry out, affecting hundreds of millions of people and killing unique aquatic life.

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The Yangtze basin is one of the most polluted rivers in the world because of decades of heavy industrialization, damming and huge influxes of sediment from land conversion. Climate change, including higher temperatures, also means devastating consequences for fishery productivity, water supply and political security in Africa's arid Nile basin.

The Ganges basin makes up almost a third of India's land area and one in twelve people in the world depend on this river for activities such as fishing and farming, the WWF said. The river, sacred for Hindus, is at the center of many of the country's social and religious traditions.

It is home to more than 140 fish species, 90 amphibian species and the endangered Ganges river dolphin. But WWF said tributaries flowing into the Ganges are drying up as barrages divert large amounts of water for irrigation.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000217.html