MORE THAN HALF WORLD'S BIGGEST RIVERS ARE SERIOUSLY DEPLETED

INDEPENDENT, UK - More than half the world's 500 mightiest rivers have
been seriously depleted. Some have been reduced to a trickle in what the
United Nations will this week warn is a "disaster in the making". From
the Nile to China's Yellow River, some of the world's great water
systems are now under such pressure that they often fail to deposit
their water in the ocean or are interrupted in the course to the sea,
with grave consequences for the planet.

Adding to the disaster, all of the 20 longer rivers are being disrupted
by big dams. One-fifth of all freshwater fish species either face
extinction or are already extinct.

The Nile and Pakistan's Indus are greatly reduced by the time they reach
the sea. Some, such as the Colorado and China's Yellow River, now rarely
reach the ocean at all. Others, such as the Jordan and the Rio Grande on
the US-Mexico border, are dry for much of their length. . .

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article350785.ece