Rivers have been the lifeblood of human civilisation. On the fourth Sunday of September every year, countries all over the world mark World Rivers Day. The day is observed to promote awareness about the importance of rivers and the increasing threat posed to rivers by climate change. This year, World Rivers Day will fall on September 25.
History
World Rivers Day stems from the 2005 United Nations’ Water for Life Decade initiative. The campaign was established to promote awareness about how our water resources need to be nurtured.
After this, World Rivers Day was established following a proposal from renowned river advocate, Mark Angelo, who had previously established a similar regional observation. Since the inaugural World Rivers Day event, the observation has spread to over 100 countries with several million individuals participating in the events.
Also read: Who is Yvon Chouinard, the billionaire who donated his entire company to fight climate change?
Significance
Rivers have long been extremely important for human settlements and civilisation. The earliest settled human civilisations emerged on the banks of major rivers. These include the Sumeran civilisation, which formed on the banks of Tigris and Euphrates rivers; Egyptian civilisation, by the Nile River; the Indus Valley civilisation which formed around the Indus River and its many tributaries, and the ancient Chinese civilisations which formed around the Yangtze river and the Yellow river.
Some of the biggest cities in the world formed on river banks or around rivers, and many of the largest cities today continue to have a river through them. Today, nearly two billion individuals rely on rivers for water, transport, work and food.
But climate change and poor environmental controls have resulted in many rivers and waterfronts being damaged or highly polluted. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) identified 351 polluted river stretches in India alone, in a survey done in 2018.
