Against the Flow

Activity 20: Rivers 1

Activity 20: Rivers

Against the Flow

Thousands of rivers flow every which way down the slopes of the Earth’s surface. Every person in the world lives in a river drainage basin. Can you name the drainage basin you live in, and the river closest to where you live? Unless you fish, boat, or swim in a nearby river, you may not spend a lot of time thinking about them, but we cannot live without the water and other resources that rivers contain. Nor can any of the millions of other plant and animal species with whom we share our rivers.

Part 1: Rivers and People

Rivers have been crucial for meeting our needs and wants, ever since the first settlements were located on rivers thousands of years ago. Because rivers bring life and sustenance, many cultures believe they have mythical, divine, or spiritual powers. In ancient Egypt, the waters of the Nile River overflowed its banks each year, depositing fertile silt on the floodplain, and renewing the fertility of the soil. In reverence of this life-giving cycle, the Egyptians regarded the waters of the Nile as the tears of the goddess Isis. The Thai word for river, mae nan, translates as “water mother.” The Hindu people of India bathe in the Ganga (Ganges) or Narmada Rivers for a spiritual experience.

Everyone in the world lives in a drainage basin, an area that is drained by a particular river or river system. Much of the rain that falls within the drainage basin collects in streams and rivers, which act as the circulatory system of the hydrologic cycle. You can think of the streams and rivers as the Earth’s veins, carrying its lifeblood back to the oceans, to begin the cycle again. Annual runoff (the water that flows into a river each year) is a good way to measure the water supply of a country because only that amount of water is renewed each year through precipitation. Only a small percentage of the water in lakes and groundwater—about 1 per cent of the Great Lakes for example—is renewed each year.

Along with flowing water, rivers contain eroded rock particles and sediments, nutrients that support the food chain, organic material, and many species of living things. Rivers transport all these life-giving materials to lakes, inland seas, and oceans. With the presence of people on the land, rivers also carry chemicals, sewage, and other wastes that are dumped directly into rivers or dumped onto the land and then washed into rivers.

Think about melting snow. Now think about flushing your toilet (the average Canadian flushes 10 times a day). Water from both the natural process and the human activity ends up in the same place. People have treated rivers as giant flushing systems for centuries. Many communities now treat their sewage before dumping it into the water system, but many treatment plants are imperfect, and not all communities have them. In addition, toxins that have been improperly disposed of have seeped into the water system. Some rivers have become so polluted that they are covered with foaming chemicals. One river became so riddled with chemicals that it caught on fire. In another instance, government officials poured blue dye into a river in an attempt to disguise its polluted state.

Only recently have we begun to understand the very real threat our activities present to the rivers and ecosystems on which we depend. Because rivers provide us with the essentials of life, we need to learn to respect and protect them. As we learn how closely our economies, societies, and the natural environment are intertwined, the necessity becomes apparent. Acting on this knowledge is an essential element in managing a river system sustainably, in a way that meets the needs of people and other species both now and in the future.

1. Explain why so many cultures have regarded the river as the sustainer of life.

2. Brainstorm a list of human activities and their effects that threaten rivers either directly or indirectly.

3. Identify ways that people have affected the course of the river closest to where you live, or the quality of its water.

4. Develop a graphic organizer, such as a Venn diagram, to illustrate interconnections among the environment, the economy, and society, in relation to rivers.

Part 2: Case Study—The Mighty Mekong

... While the Mekong does present the people who inhabit its banks with the occasional hazard, [people stage] a far more serious threat to the river and its fragile ecosystem. … The next few years could be the last in which the river’s spirit lies undisturbed, its waters flowing free.

—Jonathan Hopfner

The Mekong River, the “Sweet Serpent of Asia,” is unique among major rivers of the world. Not only is it one of the last free-flowing and unspoiled large rivers, it flows through six countries. From its source in the Tanggula Shan Mountains on the Tibetan plateau, the Mekong (called Lancang Jiang in China) meanders through some of the highest mountains in the world, drops to the rolling hills of Cambodia, and finally winds its way to a huge delta in south Vietnam. The river offers many hazards for transportation, with a riverbed that is dotted with jagged rocks, rapids, waterfalls, whirlpools, and sandbars. More than 4000 islands dot a single six-mile stretch in Laos, contributing to an average of 10 shipwrecks a year in the area. The Mekong ecosystem is rich in biodiversity, with more than 1200 species of fish. Only the Amazon River can boast greater biodiversity. The Mekong is home to the fourth-largest freshwater fishery in the world, and to a rare giant catfish that—at 3 m and 300 kg—is as “big as a cow.”

During the wet monsoon season, the Mekong riverbanks are enriched with fertile silt. This annual injection of fertility makes the adjacent lands excellent for agriculture. The fish from the river supply 80 per cent of the dietary protein for 60 million people living along its banks. More than 40 per cent of the lands downstream are used for agriculture. The irrigation of these farmlands accounts for 90 per cent of all the water used from the river. During the critical dry season, from February to May, the river becomes very narrow, with less water available.

Thousands of years of careful use of the Mekong have achieved a balance between the needs of nature and those of people. All that is beginning to change, however. China, an upstream country, wants to encourage economic growth in its landlocked province of Yunnan (a western province that borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam). China followed through on plans to dynamite parts of the river to clear a route for ships. This huge development project has transformed a stretch of the river running from the China–Myanmar border to Laos, just across the border from Thailand. The channel has created new opportunities for towns along the route, dramatically increasing trade and employment and thereby improving the quality of life for some residents. A series of huge dams is also being built in the area, to draw hydroelectric power from the river.

The river has been a sustainer of life for centuries for millions of people. Maintaining river flow is essential for domestic use, agriculture, fishing, and the ecosystems on which these activities are based. Development that occurs upstream has huge impacts on the quality and quantity of the water that flows downstream. For example, if upstream countries use more water to develop irrigated farming, rice production in the Vietnamese delta will be affected, and sea water may flow into the river, ruining the surrounding land. Can “progress” be channelled into sustainable development that takes into account cultural and environmental concerns as well as economic concerns? Can all six countries work together to manage the river basin as a whole? Can local communities work to protect their river and its watershed?

Go to the International Rivers Web site at <http://www.internationalrivers.org.
Search the site to find out what is happening along the Mekong and answer the following questions.

5. a) Identify the six countries through which the Mekong flows, and the number of people that depend on it.

b) Provide an example of a way in which countries are becoming increasingly interdependent in the global economy.

6. Create a list of changes that have happened to the Mekong River, and describe the impacts of those changes.

7. Create an annotated sketch of the Mekong River system from its source to its mouth. Refer to the map of China on Atlas pages 100–101 for information about the upper reaches of the Mekong. For countries downstream, refer to the map of South East Asia on Atlas page 103. It may be helpful to refer to a larger reference atlas in the library or classroom, or to locate a map of the river basin on a Web site. Include the following on your map:

• the six countries that share the river, and their capital cities (except Beijing, which is too far away to fit on the map)

• main towns along the river

• information about changes to the economy, environment, and societies along the Mekong as a result of the changes that are occurring to the river

• information about changes that have happened to or are planned for the river, including dams and other large projects

8. a) In a group of four, create a placemat template on a large piece of paper that looks like the diagram below.

In the centre of the page, write the following phrase: “Construction of A New Hydro Electric Dam in Yunnan Province, China, on the Mekong River.”

b) Each person in the group will take on the role of a stakeholder—someone who has an interest in what is going on. There are four roles: a fisher on Tonle Sap; a construction worker working on the new dam in Yunnan province; a farmer whose land lies alongside the river; and an official with the Chinese government’s hydroelectric commission, which needs to supply power for an ever-growing population.

c) Each of the four stakeholders will first meet with other classmates who have taken on the same role, to discuss what their position is on the new dam. Then each person will go back to their original group of four to record their position on the placemat.

d) Finally, the group will discuss what should or could be done regarding the development. Stay in your roles, and justify your position with support from the article.

Be prepared to share your ideas with the class.

Part 3: Researching a River

The Seine, Zambezi, and Limpopo,
The Amazon, Danube, and Colorado.

Exotic adventures come to mind when we hear the alluring names of some of the world’s most famous rivers. Every river is unique in its own way, and the cultures of river-based communities are all quite distinct. Nonetheless, all rivers—and all river-based communities—have some features and characteristics in common. In this part of the activity, you will choose and investigate one of the largest and most famous rivers of the world. How has it acted as a cradle of settlement and culture? What essential resources does it provide? How has human intervention affected it?

9. Use the World Physical map on Atlas pages 120–121, the Gazetteer, and regional maps to locate and label one of the rivers listed below on Outline Map 1: The World (Atlantic-centred).

10. a) People are dependent on rivers in many ways, yet they take actions—often unthinkingly—that change the river and cause environmental degradation. Conduct research to find out more about the river you chose in question 9. Look for information on the following:

• the river system:

– its length

– the size of its watershed (You can estimate this using the scale of map in the Atlas.)

– the drainage pattern

– significant parts (such as a large delta)

– major countries and cities through which it flows

– the body of water into which it flows

• how the river affects the lives of the people who depend on it

• how humans have changed and affected the river

• features of the natural environment or various ecosystems through which the river flows

• historical and cultural importance

• economic importance

b) Now present the results of your investigation in any one of the following ways. Include as much interesting information as you can.

• a written travel piece for Canadian Geographic magazine

• an original story, poem, song (the lyrics), or myth or legend about the river

• an annotated sketch map of the river and its watershed

• a wall mural or bulletin-board display