The planet’s environment becomes more and more polluted every day. Deforestation, droughts, polluted air, countless emissions from cars and factories, and decreasing clean water are part of people’s lives nowadays. Rivers’ waters are severely affected by people’s irresponsible attitude towards them, wasting clean water, and pollution on a daily basis.
Grand Canyon’s river is already affected by extreme water overuse, environmental problems, bad techniques in its management, and a lack of wise approach to make it sustainable. Oil wells are constantly fueling climate change and have decreased the level of drinking water. “One oil and gas well can use one to five million gallons of water” (National Geographic 2015, 5:59). The level of water is constantly lowering all around the globe. For instance, “Lake Powel is dropping one to six inches every day” (National Geographic 2015, 7:00). Multiple endangered species of fish are already extinct, and some as humpback chub, are in great danger of extinction: only 6000 of them are left.
In 1922 the river was divided into different pies, and Las Vegas did not exist at that time. Thus, it was not given much water, and now it has to use water very wisely: people recycle water from pools and fountains. In Las Vegas, the government pays people for tearing out their front lawns (National Geographic 2015). Multiple rivers from different states of the USA have dried up in the past decades. “Colorado today is a very powerful metaphor on so many levels because it shows what happens when people ask too much of a limited resource, it disappears.” (National Geographic 2015, 18:12). Due to environmental disasters in Mexico, its irrigation system was severely affected. That is why the country asked the USA for help, and cooperating, people managed to make the situation much better.
Although the Ganges river is polluted, it is perceived as a goddess by Indians. These people try to protect it, however, they do not realize that throwing their garbage, such as plastic bottles, is gradually killing the river. Multiple tanneries are extremely toxic places that affect the river: “Workers bating materials in the heavy metal called chromium, which is a very toxic, very nasty metal.” (National Geographic 2015, 11:28). It causes many diseases such as cancer, problems with the liver, kidneys, and dementia.
In conclusion, water pollution is a considerable problem that has to be solved and approached wisely. Rivers’ waters are severely affected by people’s irresponsible attitude to them, wasting clean water, and pollution on a daily basis. The consequences are enormous, and people already can feel them.
References
Chasing Rivers, Part 1: The Colorado | Nat Geo Live. (2015). National Geographic. Web.
Chasing Rivers, Part 2: The Ganges | Nat Geo Live. (2015). National Geographic. Web.