Human Impacts on Rivers Threaten Global Water Security, Study Says

More than 5 billion people — nearly 80 percent of the planet’s population — live in regions where water security is threatened because of mismanagement and pollution of rivers and watersheds, according to a new study. This degradation of the planet’s waters also threatens the existence of thousands of freshwater species, according to the study published in the journal Nature. The study, which examined the effects of numerous factors on the planet’s limited freshwater supplies — including pollution, agricultural runoff, dam construction, and the introduction of invasive species — found that significant deterioration in water quality was not limited to poorer nations but was common in the rivers of Europe, the U.S., and other industrialized countries. The report cited threats to water quality and species diversity in rivers ranging from the Mississippi in the U.S., to the Ganges in India, to the Yangtze in China. “Threats to human water security and biological diversity are pandemic,” said Charles Vorosmarty of the City University of New York, co-lead author of the study.