What is the most polluted river in the world. Citarum - the dirtiest river in the world

It has long been no secret that most types of human activity have a destructive effect on environment. For the desire to live in comfortable conditions, humanity pays with dirty air and poisoned water bodies. As sad as it may be, over the past hundred years, which have been marked by an unprecedented rise different areas production, people destroyed more natural resources than in the entire previous history of its existence. Today we invite you on a virtual tour of the dirtiest river on the planet that you can imagine - the Citarum River, which flows in the west.

Citarum River, Indonesia

It’s hard to believe, but just half a century ago no one would have dared to call the Citarum River the dirtiest in the world. She calmly carried her waters across the territory of West Java, being a source of livelihood for all surrounding residents. The main way for the local population to earn a living was fishing and the cultivation of rice, the water for which also came from Citarum. The river was so deep that on Lake Saguling, which it feeds, French engineers were even able to build the largest hydroelectric power station.

But the rise of industry that began in the 1980s put an end to the environmental well-being of the entire Citarum River basin. More than 500 different industrial enterprises, each of which sends all its waste directly into the river.

Despite the fairly rapid development of industry, in terms of sanitary conditions, Indonesia was and remains at the lowest level. Therefore, there is no talk here of centralized removal and disposal of household waste, or of laying sewers and constructing treatment facilities. All of them indiscriminately go into the waters of the Citarum River.

Today, the state of the Citarum River can, without any exaggeration, be called critical. An unprepared person today is unlikely to be able to guess that a river is hidden under piles of all kinds of rubbish. Only light boats slowly sailing through huge piles of rotting waste can suggest that there is water down there.

Given the current circumstances, most local residents changed their specialization. Now the main source of income for them is not fishing, but objects thrown into the river. Every morning, local men and teenagers go to the floating dump in the hope that their catch will be successful and the items found can be washed and sold. Sometimes they get lucky and the scavenger hunt brings in about 1.5-2 pounds a week. In most cases, the search for treasures leads to severe illness, and often to the death of the miner.

But even those local residents who can afford not to collect waste are not completely free from the risk of getting sick. The thing is that despite the overwhelming content of harmful substances, Citarum, as before, remains the only source drinking water for everyone nearby settlements. That is, local residents are forced to cook food and drink water practically from a garbage dump.

More than 5 years ago, the Asian Development Bank allocated more than 500 million North American dollars to clean up Citarum. But, despite such a powerful injection of money, the shores of Citarum are still hidden under piles of garbage. Environmentalists predict that in the near future the garbage will become so shallow in the river that the power plant that feeds from it will also stop operating. Perhaps then, after the closure of the enterprises located on the banks of the Citarum, the situation will improve at least a little.

Environmentalists tirelessly say that the world is on the verge of a water crisis. But despite such depressing prospects, humanity is in no hurry to change its attitude towards water resources. Some reservoirs are so polluted that it is no longer possible to bring them back to life. We present to your attention the ten dirtiest rivers in the world:

1. Citarum River, Indonesia

Is not garbage dump- this is a river, which, by the way, is one of the main waterways of Indonesia. Agree, it is not for nothing that it is in first place on the list of the most polluted rivers in the world! The river flows next to the city of 9 million Jakarta, where there are no such luxuries as waste collection services or treatment systems - all waste is directly sent into the water. It’s hard to believe, but once upon a time Citarum was full of life. Today, the water is practically invisible due to a thick layer of garbage, and local residents have already forgotten that there was once fish there.

2. Yamuna River, India

Yamuna is the most major influx The Ganga flows through the Indian states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and also crosses the capital of New Delhi, which dumps about 60% of all the garbage produced by the city into the river. The Indian government is trying to solve the problem of pollution of the Yamuna and even invests a lot of money in this good cause, but all efforts to clean the river are in vain.

3. Ganges River, India

It is no wonder that the Ganges itself, given the deplorable state of its tributaries, ended up on the “black” list. The rapid growth of India's population, the development of industry in the absence of modern treatment systems - these factors certainly have a detrimental effect on the state main river countries. In response, the Ganges “rewards” the local residents with diseases such as cholera, hepatitis, typhus and dysentery. About 80% of all health problems and a third of deaths in India are due to poor quality water.

4. Buriganga River, Bangladesh

The Buriganga is another “metropolitan” river, flowing near Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The Buriganga is rightfully considered one of the most polluted rivers in the world: its water cannot only be drunk, but even used for technical purposes. Despite the country's ban on dumping waste into rivers, about 1.5 million cubic meters of industrial waste enter Buriganga every day. It is clear that with such an attitude, this river has long turned into a biologically dead canal.

5. "Yellow River", China

The Yellow River, the second largest river in China, is the source of drinking water for millions of people in Northern China. True, how the population manages to use this resource for domestic purposes is completely unclear, because the Yellow River is heavily polluted with petroleum products.

6. Marilao River, Philippines

The waters of this river are not just polluted - they are life-threatening, as they contain various toxins such as chromium, cadmium, copper and arsenic. Despite the authorities' attempts to curb Marilao's pollution through a system of fines, the local population, as well as numerous businesses, continue to shamelessly use the river as a dumping ground.

7. Songhua River, China

The river in northern China, the largest tributary of the Amur in terms of water content, flows into it from the right downstream. The cities of Jilin, Harbin, and Jiamusi are located on the Songhua River. In November 2005, the Songhua was contaminated with benzene. An environmental disaster has led to the closure of Harbin's water supply.

8. Mississippi River, USA

This greatest river The world has also not escaped the fate of pollution. A major economic and natural resource for the United States, the Mississippi deposits thousands of tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year.

9. River Sarno, Italy

The Sarno flows south from Pompeii and empties into the Gulf of Naples at Castella Mare di Stabia. Large-scale dumping of untreated agricultural and industrial waste makes this river the most polluted in Europe.

10. Royal River, Australia

They treat this river in a completely unroyal manner: water artery polluted by chemical waste from the mining industry. Since 1995, about 1.5 million tons of sulfides have entered the Royal River each year.

Technological progress that benefits humanity often greatly harms nature. Most people are accustomed to a carefree existence and hardly think about how hard it is for our common house. River pollution is one of the scourges of our time. Which river is considered the most polluted on our planet?

Chitarum

The most dirty river in the world flows on the Indonesian island of Java. This is the longest river in the western part of the island. She plays important role V agriculture, water and electricity supply, fisheries, industry and sewerage.

By the river ancient history: back in the 4th century, pottery flourished at its mouth. There are three hydroelectric power stations along the river, providing energy to a large area around Jakarta. Water from the dams is also used to irrigate rice fields, making the northern lowlands the leading region in rice production.

80% of the river's water is heavily exploited, and this has led to such severe pollution that some farmers have been forced to sell their fields at low prices. Water is polluted mainly by textile factories that discharge their toxic waste (lead, mercury, arsenic, etc.). In 2008, an Asian bank approved a $500 million loan to clean up the waters.

The river, sacred to the people of India, is, sadly, also one of the dirtiest rivers in the world. The waters of the Ganges pose a health hazard to five hundred million people living in its vicinity and in one way or another in contact with it. The Ganges becomes dirty due to numerous wastes discharged by residents into the water, as well as due to large quantity factories and factories.

One stretch of river contains 200 times the normal amount of fecal bacteria

The cities along the river bed are overly populated and the population is increasing every year. A lot of human waste and sewage gets into the river, which is why you can’t not only use the water for drinking and cooking, but even just touch it, as this is fraught with intestinal infections. The authorities have repeatedly discussed the possibility of cleaning the river, but almost nothing has been done about it.

One of the dirtiest rivers in the world is the Buriganga, which flows in Bangladesh. It is extremely important for the economy of Dhaka city in terms of water communication.

Since ancient times, Dhaka has been an important trading port due to its convenient location on the banks of the river. Today, Buriganga suffers from disastrous pollution, in particular from chemical waste, sewage, plastics, oil, and animal corpses.

Dhaka produces about 4,500 tons of waste every day, and most of it is released into the river. Most coastal enterprises do not have a treatment system Wastewater. These are mainly textile, pharmaceutical and printing factories.

Due to the fact that Dhaka is heavily dependent on shipping, many food waste- rotten fruits, vegetables, fish. More than four million people are exposed to harmful pollution every day. The government has been criticized for its inability or unwillingness to influence the situation.

One newspaper article from 2004 reported that 80% of all wastewater is untreated

Another Indian river, one of the dirtiest rivers in the world. It is noteworthy that in 1909 its waters were described as “pure blue” (compared to the yellowness of the Ganges). But because tall population density and high rates of industrialization, the Yamuna quickly began to be polluted.

The capital New Delhi dumps more than half of its waste into this river. The Indian government spent five hundred million dollars to clean up the river, but it did not produce much results. This may be due to the fact that most wastewater treatment plants are underfunded or improperly funded.

Money continues to be allocated for purification, for example, in 2007 a plan was developed according to which the water was supposed to become 90% cleaner by 2010, but this was not entirely achieved.

The water level does not change for almost nine months of the year, which aggravates the process of cleaning the river

The degradation of this Chinese river began in the 1950s, when thousands of kilometers of dams were built for reclamation, irrigation and control of floods and disease-carrying microbes. Thus, more than a hundred lakes became cut off from the main river. Gates were installed that can be opened during floods.

However, despite the bans, many farmers began to settle on land near the lakes. When the threat of a flood came, the gates were not opened, because this would have caused significant destruction. Thus, almost all the lakes dried up, fishing in this area decreased by half, and biological diversity fish. Pollution is aggravated by the discharge of waste from pig farms as well as untreated sewage.

Many animals have lost their natural environment a habitat. In 2006, the world lost the last representative of the Chinese species river dolphin.

By September 2012, the water in the Yangtze had turned scarlet from pollution.

Yellow River

China's Yellow River is, according to a 2006 report, one-third unsuitable for agricultural or industrial use due to wastewater from factories and the rapid growth of coastal cities. When examining the river, 33% received level five; according to the UN classification, level five water becomes unsuitable for drinking, fishing and industrial needs.

The Volga, the largest body of water in Europe, is considered the most polluted of all Russian rivers.

In 2009, according to a study by the University of California, statistics were compiled that revealed that coastal zones rivers suffer extremely from both industrial and domestic pollution.

On this moment Almost half of the country's industrial and agricultural production is concentrated in the river basin. And almost 38% of all waste waste is dumped here. According to statistics produced by experts, the load on the Volga's water resources exceeds the average load in Russia by eight times. Moreover, organized wastewater, that is, industrial wastewater, is not the main threat, since at least it can be controlled. The main pollution is caused by abandoned wastewater.

Storm flows also play a significant role, causing petroleum products, such as oils, to enter the river.

King

The dirtiest river in Australia. In the 1880s, active copper mining and, accordingly, wastewater discharge began there. Between 1922 and 1995, low-grade mining residues and sulfide waste, as well as huge amounts of acid enriched metals, were also released into the water. As a result, on the nearest territory then we walked acid rain.

In 1995, the mine was closed and no more waste was released into the river. However, acidic water continues to flow into it from the mountains. Thus, the river is still toxic to aquatic organisms.

In the summer of 2013, the Greenpeace water patrol collected 10 water samples from this reservoir and conducted laboratory analysis on them. Absolutely all the results revealed a significant excess of the amount of heavy metal, as well as petroleum products.

As is known, an excessive amount of strontium can cause bone diseases, and an excess of aluminum can cause bone disorders. nervous system. Near the oil refinery, an amount of manganese exceeding the norm by 120 times was detected, and this is a serious risk factor for blood diseases and deterioration of the immune system.

The results of the analyzes were sent to Rosprirodnadzor and the Moscow Prosecutor's Office to solve the problem of pollution of the Moscow River

This Philippine pond is full of plastic wrappers, rubber slippers and other household trash. In addition, water is extremely dangerous due to the content of toxic chemicals such as cadmium and arsenic. Both factories and ordinary people, continue to dump their garbage and sewage waste into the water, despite impressive fines and the activity of environmentalists.

Workers do not have time to clean the pond from pollution

This is not a complete list of heavily polluted rivers on Earth. You can also mention the Matanza River, which flows through the capital of Argentina, and the sacred Jordan River. There is no justification for mankind’s irresponsible attitude towards the cleanliness of rivers, because from time immemorial our ancestors settled near them, they fished in them, they organized navigation, and they took drinking water from them. Taking into account all this significance, the authorities must devote efforts to eradicate the barbaric attitude towards such important water resources.

Now it’s hard to believe, but once upon a time the most polluted rivers in the world were clean, people swam in them, fished in them, and even drank water from them. But now the situation has changed dramatically.

Once clean rivers turned into landfills. And although it is dangerous for people to swim in such rivers, those living on them not only perform ablutions, but also use their water as drinking water.

Observing such a picture, you understand that humanity is one step away from a water crisis and something needs to be done about it.

Citarum River, Indonesia

The river is located in West Java, Indonesia. This is the dirtiest river in the world. However, water is used for water supply, to support agriculture, for industrial purposes, etc.

The Citarum River is not very big. The width is only 10 m maximum, the depth is even less - 5 m, but its length reaches 300 km. It originates in Indonesia, stretches along the entire western Java, and also flows near the capital Jakarta. The river flows into the Java Sea.