Under embargo 0001 GMT 20 March 2007

Going nowhere fast: top rivers face mounting threats

Gland, Switzerland ­– The world’s top water suppliers - rivers on every continent - are drying-out threatening severe water shortages. Poor planning and inadequate protection of natural areas mean we can no longer assume that water will flow forever, says WWF.
 
In its latest report, World’s Top 10 Rivers at Risk, released ahead of World Water Day (March 22) the global conservation organization lists the top ten rivers that are fast dying as a result of climate change, pollution and dams.

Water lilies on marshes along the Danube River near Wilkowo. Ukraine WWF-Canon / Anton VORAUER

“All the rivers in the report symbolize the freshwater crisis, signalled for years, but the alarm is falling on deaf ears,” says Jamie Pittock, Director of WWF's Global Freshwater Programme. “Like the climate change crisis, which now has the attention of business and government, we want leaders to take notice of the emergency facing freshwater now not later.”

Five of the ten rivers listed in the report are in Asia alone: Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Ganges and Indus.  Europe’s Danube, the Americas’ La Plata and Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, Africa’s Nile-Lake Victoria and Australia’s
Murray-Darling also make the list.

Dams along the Danube River — one of the longest flowing rivers in Europe — have already destroyed 80 per cent of the river basin’s wetlands and floodplains. Even without warmer temperatures threatening to melt Himalayan glaciers, the Indus River faces scarcity due to over-extraction for agriculture. Fish populations, the top source of protein and overall life support systems for hundreds of thousands of communities worldwide, are also being threatened.

The report calls on governments to better protect river flows and water allocations in order to safeguard habitats and people’s livelihoods.

“Conservation of rivers and wetlands must be seen as part and parcel of national security, health and economic success,” Pittock adds. “Emphasis must be given to exploring ways of using water for crops and products that do not use more water than necessary.”

In addition, cooperative agreements for managing shared resources, such as the UN Watercourses Convention, must be ratified and given the resources to make them work, says WWF.

“The freshwater crisis is bigger than the ten rivers listed in this report but it mirrors the extent to which unabated development is jeopardising nature’s ability to meet our growing demands,” says Pittock. “We must change our mindset now or pay the price in the not so distant future.”

“For broadcast-standard video supporting this press release, please visit www.thenewsmarket.com/wwf. If you are a first-time user, please take a moment to register. In case you have any questions, please email wwf@thenewsmarket.com.”

Information on many WWF projects can be found on Google Earth. New users must first download the Google Earth application from www.earth.google.com ( http://www.earth.google.com/ ). Once this has been done, users will find WWF in the Featured Content section under the heading Layers.
 
For further information:
Lisa Hadeed, Communications Manager, Global Freshwater Programme, t +41 22 364 9030, m +41 79 372 1346, lhadeed@wwfint.org.  Brian Thomson, Press Officer, WWF International, t +41 22 364 9554, m +41 79 477 3553, bthomson@wwfint.org.

EDITORS NOTES

1. For a full copy of the report, go to http://www.panda.org/freshwater.

2. For more information on WWF’s Global Freshwater Programme go to http://www.panda.org/freshwater.

3. Click here to read about "milestones in water conservation" through WWF's work with partners around the world http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/freshwater/publications/index.cfm?uNewsID=77040.