(Guardian Weekly 6-12 April 2007)
“Many of the world’s biggest rivers including the Nile,Ganges,Yangtze and Danube are facing catastrophic collapse because of man made problems,according to a leading conservation group. We are talking about a complete collapse of the system –they are so polluted,so over-extracted or so cut up by dams that they are not functioning as rivers any more,said Tan Le Quesne,fresh-water policy officer at WWF-UK the conservation charity. The report published by the charity says that the threat to the world rivers is a challenge that humans face not far off the scale of climate change.
Five of the rivers listed are found in Asia- the Yangtze,Mekong,Salween,Ganges and Indus. The last two are in India and Pakistan.
A Book “Planet India” by Mira Kamdar reviewed in the Weekend Australian 14-15 April 2007 extols Indians as an economic power house rivalling China and points out that 50 % of its people are under 25 and that by 2015 there will be 550 million teenagers in India. Fifteen years later with the teenagers married and with four children per couple there will be an extra one billion Indians. What are they going to drink?
