River pollution
A river is a very important part of the water cycle, carrying rain water back to the sea. It can be a long journey for a raindrop. Rivers can run for many hundreds of miles. Rivers are part of human’s culture. Thousands of years ago, early humans settled by lowland rivers and later used them for transport from one settlement to another, and for power to drive flour mills and other machinery.
With development, the activity along river banks increased and industries used rivers as an outlet for their wastes which caused major harm to the rivers and life supported by the rivers. The demands of society for hydro-electric power, irrigation, fishing, boating etc also adversely impacted the rivers. This critical situation of the rivers made river management essential.
One of the most important aspects of river management is the careful monitoring of water quality, which is carried out by the frequent sampling of water and testing for impurities. This is to keep a check on perhaps the most dangerous of all of our effects on rivers... Pollution! For hundreds of years we got rid of our waste into rivers and streams, but it was the growth of the industrial revolution during the nineteenth century that resulted in the rivers suffering the greatest pollution they have ever known.
Water is an important source of life and covers 70% of the Earth. Out of the earth’s total water, 97% is stored in oceans, which is not fit for human consumption and 3% is stored in various sources like rivers, lakes, and under-ground aquifers. Fresh water is a precious resource and the increasing pollution of our rivers and lakes is a cause for alarm.
