Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25253
"I do not know much about gods. but I think the river is a strong brown god." -1.S. ELIOT ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. Percent of China's major rivers so degraded that they no longer support fish: 80 I • In Thailand and Malaysia. water pollution is so heavy that rivers often contain 30 to 100 times more pathogens. heavy metals and poisons than are permitted by government health standards. GUINEA-BISSAU, GUINEA, SIERRA LEONE, SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE, MALI NIGER, NIGERIA, CAMEROON, CONGO, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, ANGOLA, LESOTHO, SWAZILAND, BURUNDI, MOZAMBIQUE, MADAGASCAR, UGANDA, KENYA, ETHIOPIA, SOMALIA, DIJIBOUTI, ERITREA. Largest Ocean: PACIFIC OCEAN = 64 MILLION SQUARE MILES Largest Sea: SOUTH CHINA SEA = 1.1 MILLION SQUARE MILES Deepest Point in Ocean: MARIANA TRENCH. PACIFIC OCEAN. 36.000 FEET Saltiest Sea: DEAD SEA. 9 TIMES SALTIER THAN OCEAN WATER Hottest Sea Water: PERSIAN GULF. 35°C (95°F) Longest RIver: NILE RIVER. 4.145 MILES River that Carries Most Water: AMAZON RIVER POURS 4 MILLION CUBIC FEET EVERY SECOND INTO ATLANTIC OCEAN Muddiest RIver: YANGTSE RIVER DEPOSITS RICH SILT OVER 54.689 SQUARE MILES IN ITS FLOOD PLAIN AND DELTA (2 BILLION TONS OF SOIL WASHED DOWN EACH YEAR) Percent of urban sewage discharged untreated into face waters in developing countries: 95 Percent of US community water systems with potentially unsafe concentrations of pesticides: 1 2.5 acres of American wetlands are lost every minute. Percentage of original wetlands lost to date: Continental USA: 50 California: 95 Canada: 15 First year the Yangtse River failed to reach the sea: 1972 Number of days per it failed to reach sea. 1972: 15 Number of days it failed to reach sea, 1997: 226 .. ..: .. Percent of total water consumed by irrigation: 70 Percent of global food supply that comes from irrigated lands: 40 . Acres of globally irrigated land. 1800: 15 million Acres of globally irrigated land. 2001: 570 million Acres of agricultural land abandoned annually due to overirrigation: 2.5 million Number of people who live on damaged land that cannot produce food: 1 billion WATER SICKNESS + More than dren, die every year from illnesses caused by drinking poor-quality water. 5. 000. 000 people, most of them chil- + Every 8 seconds a child dies from a preventable. waterborne disease. + Deaths per year caused by waterborne pathogens and pollution: 25 million + Childhood deaths per year due to diarrhea: 3 million + World's hospital beds occullied by people suffering from a waterborne illness: 50% + Developing world's diseases and deaths attributed to preventable waterborne illness: 85% to water may be the ngle biggest cause of conflict nd war in Africa in the next 25 Syria and Iraq have accused Turkey of depriving them of much- needed water. as it continues to build a series of dams along the upper Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Competition for water from the River Jordan was a major cause of the 1967 war. The Lebanese have long accused Israel of having designs on the of the River Litani. Syria accuses Israel of being reluctant to withdraw from the banks of the Sea of Galilee. because it is the source of up to 30X of Israel's water. _ There is already fierce national competition over water for irriga- tion and power generation in the Nile River Basin. By 1991. Cairo warned in that it was ready to use force to protect its access to waters of the Nile. which atso runs through Ethiopia and Sudan. _ The Ganges has been the subject of a long-running dispute between India and Bangladesh. Sources: Blue Gold. United Nations. UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Water Education Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency 19