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The historical record includes marked shifts in the appreciation of rivers, numerous conflicts in use demand, and an intensification of use that rapidly accelerated during the 20th century. External freight trade became concentrated in estuarine ports rather than in inland ports when oceangoing vessels increased in size. Even the port of London, though constrained by high capital investment, has displaced itself toward its estuary. The Amazon remains naturally navigable by ocean ships for 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles), the Yangtze for 1,000 kilometres, and the partly artificial St. Lawrence Seaway for 2,100 kilometres. Internal freight traffic on the Rhine system and its associated canals amounts to one-quarter or more of the total traffic in the basin and to more than half in some parts. After a period of decline from the later 1800s to about the mid-1900s, water transport of freight has steadily increased. This trend can in large part be attributed to advances in river engineering. Large-scale channel improvement and stabilization projects have been undertaken on many of the major rivers of the world, notably in the northern plain lands of Russia and in the interior of the United States (e.g., various large tributaries of the Mississippi River).

Demand on open-channel water increases as population and per capita water use increase and as underground water supplies fall short. Irrigation use constitutes a comparatively large percentage of the total supply. With a history of at least 5,000 years, controlled irrigation now affects roughly 2,000,000 square kilometres (770,000 square miles) of land, three-quarters of it in East and South Asia and two-fifths in mainland China alone. Most of this activity involves the use of natural floodwater, although reliance on artificially impounded storage has increased rapidly. Irrigation in the 1,300-kilometre length of the Indus valley, for instance, depends almost exclusively on barrages (i.e., distributor canals) running down alluvial fans and along floodplains.

Present-day demands on rivers as power sources range from the floating of timber, through the use of water for cooling, to hydroelectric generation. Logging in forests relies primarily on flotation during the season of meltwater high flow. Large power plants and other industrial facilities are often located along rivers, which supply the enormous quantities of water needed for cooling purposes (see below). Manufacturers of petrochemicals, steel, and woolen cloth also make large demands. Hydroelectric power generation was introduced more than 100 years ago, but the majority of the existing installations have been built since 1950. Many of the world’s major industrial nations have developed their hydropower potential to the fullest, though a few like the United States still have some untapped resources. It has been estimated that 75 percent of the potential hydropower in the contiguous United States has been developed, and about 13 percent of the total annual electrical energy demands of the country are met by hydroelectric power plants. By contrast, there are some countries, such as Norway and Switzerland, that depend almost entirely on hydropower for their various electrical energy needs. There is great potential for supplies of hydropower in Central Asia and in many of the developing countries in the region of the Himalayas, Africa, and South America.

Use demand of more immediate kinds are related to freshwater fisheries (including fish-farming), to dwelling in houseboats, and to recreational activities. Reliable data for these kinds of dependence on rivers do not exist; published estimates that freshwater and migratory fish provide up to about 15 percent of world catch may be too low. Certainly, millions of people are concerned with freshwater fishery and houseboat living, principally in the deltaic areas of East Asia, where dwelling, marketing, and travel can be located almost exclusively on the water. Furthermore, recreational use of rivers has increased over the years. In North America many waterways, particularly those with relatively light commercial traffic, support large numbers of recreational craft. In Europe pleasure cruisers transport multitudes of sightseers up and down the Rhine and Seine each year, while various derelict canals of such systems as the Thames have been restored for boating.

Environmental problems attendant on river use

The ever-increasing exploitation of rivers has given rise to a variety of problems. Extensive commercial navigation of rivers has resulted in much artificial improvement of natural channels, including increasing the depth of the channels to permit passage of larger vessels. In some cases, this lowering of the river bottom has caused the water table of the surrounding area to drop, which has adversely affected agriculture. Also, canalization, with its extensive system of locks and navigation dams, often seriously disrupts riverine ecosystems.

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Water and its Varying Forms

An even more far-reaching problem is that of water pollution. Pesticides and herbicides are now employed in large quantities throughout much of the world. The widespread use of such biocides and the universal nature of water makes it inevitable that the toxic chemicals would appear as stream pollutants. Biocides can contaminate water, especially of slow-flowing rivers, and are responsible for a number of fish kills each year.

In agricultural areas the extensive use of phosphates and nitrates as fertilizers may result in other problems. Entering rivers via rainwater runoff and groundwater seepage, these chemicals can cause eutrophication. This process involves a sharp increase in the concentration of phosphorus, nitrogen, and other plant nutrients that promotes the rapid growth of algae (so-called algal blooms) in sluggish rivers and a consequent depletion of oxygen in the water. Under normal conditions, algae contribute to the oxygen balance in rivers and also serve as food for fish, but in excessive amounts they crowd out populations of other organisms, overgrow, and finally die owing to the exhaustion of available nutrients and autointoxication. Various species of bacteria then begin to decay and putrefy the dead algal bodies, the oxidation of which sharply reduces the amount of oxygen in the river water. The water may develop a bad taste and is unfit for human consumption unless filtered and specially treated.

Urban centres located along rivers contribute significantly to the pollution problem as well. In spite of the availability of advanced waste-purification technology, a surprisingly large percentage of the sewage from cities and towns is released into waterways untreated. In effect, rivers are used as open sewers for municipal wastes, which results not only in the direct degradation of water quality but also in eutrophication.

Still another major source of pollutants is industry. Untreated industrial chemical wastes can alter the normal biological activity of rivers, and many of the chemicals react with water to raise the acidity of rivers to a point where the water becomes corrosive enough to destroy living organisms. An example of this is the formation of sulfuric acid from the sulfur-laden residue of coal-mining operations. Although upper limits for concentrations of unquestionably toxic chemicals such as arsenic, barium, cyanide, lead, and phenols have been established for drinking water, no general rules exist for the treatment of industrial wastes because of the wide variety of organic and inorganic compounds involved. Moreover, even in cases where a government-imposed ban checks the further discharge of certain dangerous substances into waterways, the chemicals may persist in the environment for years. Such is the case with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the chlorinated hydrocarbon by-products of various industrial processes that were routinely discharged into U.S. waterways until the late 1970s when the federal government not only prohibited the continued discharge of the chemicals into the environment but their production as well. Since PCBs cannot be broken down by conventional waste-treatment methods and are degraded by natural processes very slowly, scientists fear that these compounds will continue to pose a serious hazard for decades to come. PCBs have been found in high concentrations in the fatty tissues of fish, which can be passed up the food chain to humans. An accumulation of PCBs in the human body is known to induce cancer and other severe disorders.

As noted above, many industrial facilities, including nuclear power plants, steel mills, chemical-processing facilities, and oil refineries, use large quantities of water for cooling and return it at elevated temperatures. Such heated water can alter the existing ecology, sometimes sufficiently to drive out or kill desirable species of fish. It also may cause rapid depletion of the oxygen supply by promoting algal blooms.