An endangered river is one which has the potential to partly or fully dry up, or one that is thought to have ecological issues now or in the near future. Some such issues are natural while others are the direct result of human development. Organisations including the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

(WWF) have published lists of rivers at risk. The WWF's 2007 list featured the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

, the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

, and the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

amongst others, stating that these "once great rivers" are in danger and "can no longer be assured of reaching the sea unhindered". The US

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

reported in 2015 that part of the Rio Grande "often lies dry". Dangers may be the result of the natural change of conditions in the local environment but many are due to human development projects such as

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

s and

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

. Humans have also caused significant

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water ...

which endangers life which relies upon the water source.

Importance

According to the World Resources Institute (WRI)

river basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...

s are "indispensable resources for billions of people, companies, farms, and ecosystems" but many suffer from "water stress". It states that numerous major rivers around the world have become depleted to the point that they can fail to reach their destinations.

Water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water Water resources, resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water ...

is a danger to all the life that depends on the source.

Dangers to rivers

River A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

s face many dangers, both natural and manmade.

Climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

can have a significant impact on rivers, both positive and negative. This could be seen itself as an indirect result of human developments. An area which has a reduction in rainfall or an increase in temperature can make a river fully or partially dry out. This often means that the water can no longer reach its

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

. The

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

of an area can face change and can have a substantial impact on landscape and local ecology.

Invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

can move into an area or be introduced by humans. One particular example of the latter is the case of beavers being introduced into

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

in 1946. While only 20 animals were transplanted into the area they quickly reproduced with no natural predator to curb numbers. Their effect on the area, through the damaging gnawing of trees and the building of their dams, has been significant enough that humans continue an attempt to undo their mistake with a program of beaver eradication. The ponds created by the beavers, which now number in the tens of thousands, have greatly contributed to the amount of organic matter retained by the rivers which then causes more problems downstream.

Specific human factors

Human interference in the form of

river engineering River engineering is a discipline of civil engineering which studies human intervention in the course, characteristics, or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. People have intervened in the natural course and b ...

can redirect the flow of the water using

s or channelisation. The increasing demand from

irrigated Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

agriculture, continued industrialisation, and residential use heavily impacts upon the health of river systems. This means that many areas face high levels of "baseline water stress". Rivers can be cut off from their

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s and their normal route can be changed or disrupted significantly. If improperly managed this can have a devastating effect on the surrounding area and endanger the plants and animals that depend on them, including humans.

Water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water ...

is another artificial danger which can be a serious threat to wildlife and human health. The

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

runs from the

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

through four other states, parts of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and then on to the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

. Due to the human demands for water very little reaches Mexico and what does is often polluted. The

Teesta River Teesta River is a long river that rises in the Pauhunri Mountain of eastern Himalayas, flows through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal through Rangpur, and enters the Bay of Bengal. It drains an area of . In India, it flows through ...

faces similar issues. The river flows through India and into Bangladesh, but India's water demands led to the part of the river in Bangladesh to dry up in 2018. If the situation continues it could be catastrophic for the local ecosystem. The

Rio Grande Project The Rio Grande Project is a United States Bureau of Reclamation irrigation, hydroelectricity, flood control, and interbasin water transfer project serving the upper Rio Grande basin in the southwestern United States. The project irrigates along ...

was an irrigation,

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

, and

interbasin water transfer Interbasin transfer or transbasin diversion are (often hyphenated) terms used to describe man-made conveyance schemes which move water from one river basin where it is available, to another basin where water is less available or could be utilized ...

project serving the upper

basin in the southwestern United States. It was completed in 1952 and has had a significant impact on the surrounding area. In the past, the river was wide, deep and fast-flowing in its section through Texas, where it forms a large part of the Mexico – United States border.

Illegal immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwa ...

once had to swim across the river at the border, but with the river so low immigrants need only wade across for most of the year. After leaving

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

the Rio Grande often runs dry because so much water has been diverted away for human use. Other than extensive diversions, exotic introduced, fast-growing and water-consuming plants, such as

water hyacinth ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive outside its native range.hydrilla, are also leading to reduced flows. The United States government has recently attempted to slow or stop the progress of these weeds by introducing insects and fish that feed on the invasive plants.

Reports

In 2014 a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

report suggested that the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n Citarum River, forty miles east of

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, may be the most polluted river in the world. Running from Mount Wayang to the

Java Sea The Java Sea ( id, Laut Jawa, jv, Segara Jawa) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its nort ...

, there are over 30 million residents who rely on the river. Rapid

industrialisation Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

has had such a harmful effect that the river's surface cannot be seen for the waste and detritus floating on top of it.

World Wildlife Fund report

The WWF published on their website the "10 Rivers most at Risk", a report from March 2007. They based their criteria on major rivers which already suffer or are particularly likely in the future to suffer from six key threats: dams and infrastructure, excessive water extraction, climate change, invasive species, over-fishing, and pollution. They noted that some of the greatest rivers "can no longer be assured of reaching the sea unhindered". The ten rivers which most concerned them are:

American Rivers reports

Each year

American Rivers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

publishes a list containing ten of "America's Most Endangered Rivers". In 2018 its criteria focused on "threats o riversfrom the

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

" and they selected the Big Sunflower River as the one most endangered using their criteria. The river is one of the main

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage b ...

of the

Yazoo River The Yazoo River is a river in the U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi. It is considered by some to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, a broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before the ...

in the U.S. state of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

but is threatened by the Yazoo Backwater Area Pumping Plant project which they say has the potential to damage 200,000 acres of important

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

World Resources Institute project

The World Resources Institute's Aqueduct project evaluated, mapped, and rated the state of the water supplies for 100 river basins in areas of high population. Their list highlighted the dangers to the Qom River, Yongding River, Brantas River, and Heray Rud River amongst others.

References

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The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

, url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/10761077/Citarum-the-most-polluted-river-in-the-world.html , date=11 April 2014 , surname=Yallop , first=Olivia , accessdate=25 April 2018 {{cite news , title=Teesta River dries up, ecosystem threatened , work=

Dhaka Tribune The ''Dhaka Tribune'' is a major Bangladeshi English-language daily newspaper based in Dhaka, the country's capital and largest city. It also operates an online Bengali version known as the ''Bangla Tribune''. The newspaper has a strong readershi ...

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Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

, url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/argentina-and-chile-decide-not-to-leave-it-to-beavers/ , date=10 March 2014 , surname=Worth , first=Katie , accessdate=29 April 2018 {{cite news , title=World's 18 Most Water-Stressed Rivers , publisher= World Resources Institute , url=http://www.wri.org/blog/2014/03/world’s-18-most-water-stressed-rivers , date=20 March 2014 , surname1=Maddocks , first1=Andrew , surname2=Reig , first2=Paul , accessdate=29 April 2018 {{cite news , url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010523/ai_n14383069/ , title=US border patrols tackle flood of problems as Rio Grande runs dry , publisher=BNET , accessdate=April 10, 2009 {{Dead link, date=September 2010, bot=RjwilmsiBot {{cite web , title=The Rio Grande , publisher=

, url=https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/nature/riogrand.htm , date=24 February 2015 , accessdate=26 May 2018 Rivers Ecology