Rivers of Death

The rivers that are the lifeblood of the planet and of human civilisation are dying. Worldwide, the evidence is unequivocal, massive, unchallengeable. Humans are hastening to destroy their main source of food, drink, nature and community, as fast as we can go.

The scientists who have observed and measured the plight of the world’s rivers, great and small, for almost a century are appalled. Almost nowhere are rivers in recovery. Almost everywhere they are in decline, for lack of water, lack of flow, a torrent of man-made poisons, sediment and filth and the universal desecration of river life.

The State of the World’s Rivers website provides a sickening snapshot of 50 of the world’s most important river basins, their decline and failing health. From the Amazon to the Zambesi it is a catalogue of destruction unmatched in human history, by societies mindlessly committed to their own self-annihilation.

For over seven thousand years, most cities and towns have been situated in river valleys. A trustworthy supply of clean, fresh water is a sine qua non of urban civilisation: no water, no city. That fundamental truth has been lost in desperate attempts to prop up dying systems that give life to landscapes and to people. Half the world’s food is grown using river water or on their floodplains. Rivers lie at the heart of local history, culture, beliefs, trade, leisure, tourism and adventure, wildlife and trees.

Worldwide some 50,000 dams have smashed the world’s great rivers into dislocated fragments, disrupting natural flood cycles, the hydrology that sustains the surrounding landscape and the movement of fishes, plants and animals. While dams may sound sensible from a water storage perspective, they also correlate with declining water quality, health and biota, trap sediment and toxins like mercury.

The primary threat to the world’s rivers is extraction of their water, for human uses such as agriculture, mining, industry and cities. 72 per cent of the water pumped from the world’s rivers is used to grow food. This is damaging great rivers such as the Yangtze, Yellow, Ganges, Nile, Niger, Congo, and Murray-Darling. Scientists warn that the emerging water scarcities that now threaten great cities and their food supplies may be seriously underestimated.

Under the lash of global heating, rivers worldwide are drying up at the fastest rate since the 1990s, posing a critical threat to ecosystems, agriculture, and human populations. The World Meteorological Organisation found 2023 to be the driest for 33 years for the world’s rivers, such as the Danube, Yangtse, Indus and Colorado, pitching the global hydrological cycle into disarray. This was accompanied by catastrophic mass loss caused by the melting of the mountain glaciers that feed many rivers.

As the Earth heats, more water evaporates, falling as heavier dumps of rain. Combined with the clearing of catchments and river basins this has greatly elevated the flood risk worldwide, resulting in the paradox that empty rivers can also pose a catastrophic flood threat.

Anywhere they contact humans, rivers are polluted. The largest pollutant is fertiliser from agriculture or gardens: tests show less than half of all fertiliser used ends up in crops. This means that over 100 million tonnes a year sinks into the water table, ending up in rivers, lakes or streams where it causes toxic algae to bloom and creates lifeless zones.

Food production also uses 5 million tonnes a year of highly toxic pesticide, much of which washes into rivers and lakes, poisoning their insects, fish and plant life. The loss of aquatic insects in particular is destroying food chains leading to birds, fish and reptiles, spreading extinction across entire landscapes and river basins.

Figure 1. Pollution state of the world’s key river basins. Source: International Rivers, 2026.

Rivers with cities astride them suffer heavily from industrial pollution, including toxic chemicals, microplastics, heavy metals, oily street runoff, antibiotics, human hormones and drugs, poorly treated sewage and casual waste dumping. Ranked in order of foulness, the world’s top “Dirty Dozen” rivers are:

1 Hai Ho

2 Wisla

3 Dnepr

4 Tigris-Euphrates

5 Yellow

6 Danube

7 Mississippi

8 Godavari

9 Volta

10 Volga

11 Indus

12 Ganges-Brahmaputra

Rivers, lakes and wetlands are home to some 140,000 freshwater birds and animal species, most of which are now at risk. Freshwater animals have declined by 84% globally since 1970. This is the fastest rate of decline of any specialised group of species on the planet and reflects the impact of massively rising human pressures on the world’s river systems. Explicitly, the loss of waterlife spotlights our dead and dying rivers.

As the world water crisis builds and freshwater becomes a scarce resource, the human vultures are gathering to seize control of it. The world trend towards privatisation of water supplies has turned fresh water from being the central pillar of life on Earth to just another way to extort money from people and the environment. From the monopolisation of groundwater resources by transnational corporates to the exploitation of urban water and waste systems the world’s water supply is being turned into a cash cow that accelerates the destruction of the very resource it exploits. Almost nowhere are the world’s rivers being managed sustainably.

Water scarcity, in turn, is intensifying political tensions between water-rich and water-poor nations or segments of society, magnifying the threat of violence. Water wars have occurred for nearly 5000 years but have escalated in recent decades with shared rivers in the Middle East, Africa and SE Asia becoming particular flashpoints.

Despite many gallant attempts to restore or resurrect ruined rivers worldwide, the overall trend is towards collapse as an overpopulated humanity and corporate greed exert mindless pressure on a dwindling resource.

Noteworthy among river restoration efforts are:

· The removal of four dams on the Klamath River in California, leading to recovery in its migratory salmon population.

· The use of nature to restore the Dommel River in the Netherlands

· The cleansing of the Yodo River in Japan from its industrial waste

· Restoration of the Loire River valley in France for nature, history and multiple uses.

· A wide range of community-based river projects in the US.

. The UK’s filthiest river, the Mersey, is the subject of a major clean-up project.

The keys to success in river restoration are: comprehensive planning that embraces all aspects of river life and use; community engagement; adaptive management; partnership between government, NGOs, scientists, community and the private sector; long-term monitoring to measure success and identify emerging risks.

However, as human numbers burgeon, along with unrestrained demand for food, water and minerals combined with climate disruption, the rate at which the world’s rivers are degrading is also gathering pace.

Civilisation is built on rivers. When the rivers go, civilisation goes with them. They are a glaring warning lamp for our own future.