Rivers drying out due to climate change

DRYING OUT: Many major rivers like the Nile (here) at risk of drying out because of climate change.

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Geneva: Many major rivers in the world are at risk of drying out because of climate change and dam construction, which could affect fresh water supplies and marine life, the global nature protection body WWF said on Tuesday.

In a report ahead of the March 22 'World Water Day', the Swiss-based group identified 10 rivers, including the Nile, the Rio Grande and the Danube, as some of the worst victims of poor planning and inadequate protection.

"Rivers regularly no longer reach the sea, like the Indus in Pakistan, the Nile in Africa and the Rio Grande. There are millions of people whose livelihoods are at risk," said Jamie Pittock, director of WWF's global freshwater program.

Rivers are the world's main source of fresh water, and about half of the available supply is already being used up, he said.

Dams have destroyed habitats and cut rivers off from their flood plains, while climate change could alter the rules by which rivers have lived by for thousands of years, the report said.

Fish populations, the top source of protein and overall life support for hundreds of thousands of communities worldwide, are also being threatened, the report found.

WWF urged governments to strike agreements on ways to better manage shared water resources in order to minimize damage.

"All the rivers in the report symbolise the freshwater crisis signaled for years, but the alarm is falling on deaf ears," Pittock said.

Other rivers on the warning list were the Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Ganges, in Asia, the Rio Plata in South America and Australia's Murray-Darling, WWF said.