Top 10 Most Polluted Rivers in the World Today

Ganges River is the most famous river, an icon of India originating from the Himalayas. This river is 2,510km long, flowing southeast through Bangladesh and into the Bay of Bengal. The total basin area of the Ganges River is up to 907,000km2, and its basin is one of the most fertile and densely populated land areas in the world. However, today, the Ganges River is one of the most polluted rivers in the world due to untreated industrial and domestic waste being discharged continuously, making the worshippers terrified of the water in the river they used to worship. Along the banks of the Ganges, there are more than 400 million people living, and about 2 million people come to the river for ritual baths every day.

Furthermore, the custom of partially cremating bodies and releasing them into the river along with untreated waste directly from hospitals, due to a lack of incineration systems for treatment, are reasons that contribute to the increased pollution in the Ganges River. The water of the Ganges is now unfit for drinking, bathing, and agricultural use because the levels of toxic metals such as mercury, lead, chromium, and nickel in the river water are quite high. As the holiest river in India, the Ganges River originates from Gaumukh in the Himalayas. Stretching 2,510 km, the Ganges provides water for nearly half a billion people and is the life source of the people of India settled on both sides. According to a study, the city of Varanasi is responsible for about 25% of the pollution in the Ganges River. Over the years, the Indian government has made various efforts to clean the sacred river, but no significant improvement has been observed.

Doce River originates from the confluence of the Carmo and Piranga rivers in the southeast of Minas Gerais state. Flowing northeast to Governador Valadares, then southeast to Colatina, and finally eastward through the coastal plain of Espírito Santo state, it empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Regencia after a course of about 360 miles (580 km). This is the only inland waterway to the Brazilian interior from the eastern coast. The marshes and deltas in the lower Doce have given rise to major sanitation projects. Its upper reaches are crucial commercially due to the mineral wealth of Minas Gerais, brought out through a parallel railway alongside the river.

Doce River is a river located in southeastern Brazil with a total length of about 853 km. The river basin is the site of the largest steel production in Latin America, resulting in substantial industrial waste discharged into the river. In 2015, the collapse of a wastewater dam caused severe pollution and led to an ecological disaster. Currently, the Doce River is extensively polluted, spanning over 500 km, jeopardizing the lives of various species and negatively impacting the drinking water source for around 250,000 people in its vicinity.

If thousands of years ago, the Yellow River was known as China's Sorrow due to frequent disasters like dike breaches and floods, its current sorrow is even more profound and multiplied as the river is now heavily polluted. The upper reaches of the Yellow River flow through the city of Baiyin, Gansu Province. The Dongdagou River, with a length of 38 km, flows into the Yellow River and bears the brunt of millions of tons of heavy metal waste, becoming the main source of pollution for the Yellow River today. Professors at Peking University have published water test samples from the Yellow River, indicating cadmium levels 2,200 times higher than national standards and mercury levels 2,000 times higher. The most devastating impact of the Yellow River's pollution is causing residents who use its water source to suffer from dental loss, affecting both the elderly and young with various dangerous diseases.

Today, alongside natural disasters, the Yellow River also sows a deeper sadness and a more formidable threat: The river's water is so polluted that it cannot be used for irrigation; every year, it receives over 4 billion tons of domestic wastewater, equivalent to 1/10 of the entire river's volume. With rapid industrialization, the color of the Yellow River, once characteristic yellow, has changed to red, purple... For example, in October 2006, about 1 km of the river passing through Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, turned red and extremely foul-smelling due to domestic wastewater. Most of the Yellow River water flows through key industrial areas such as coal and major residential areas. Among the 20,000 nationwide oil refineries, up to 4,000 are located along the Yellow River. One-third of fish species in this river have become extinct due to dam construction, pollution, and overfishing.

Mississippi River, spanning 3,782 km, is the second-longest river in the United States. It originates from Lake Itasca and flows through two main states, Minnesota and Louisiana. The source of the Mississippi River is Lake Itasca at an elevation of 450 meters above sea level. The Mississippi River drains water to most areas between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains, except regions diverted from the Hudson Bay watershed via the route of the Red River, Lake of the Woods. It runs through the states of Minnesota and is used to delineate the boundaries of eight states: Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

If measured from the source of the Jefferson River to the Gulf of Mexico, the length of the Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson river system is about 6,275 km (3,900 miles), making it the fourth-longest river system in the world. Currently, the water level of the Mississippi River has decreased by up to 22% only in the period from 1960 to 2004 due to climate change, significantly affecting the lives of many people. Today, the river is gradually becoming depleted, arid, destroying life in the river basin, causing widespread destruction of biodiversity, severe freshwater scarcity, and threatening food security.

In the past, Citarum River in Java, Indonesia used to be a tropical paradise for tourism, but now it's one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The river is drowning in various types of waste, from household trash to hazardous chemicals discharged by textile factories, along with dead animals causing the fish population to decrease by up to 60%. Excessive discharge of dye pollutants has turned the water into various colors like red, green, yellow, or brown. The pollution of this river is the main culprit for the increased cases of cancer, skin diseases, nervous disorders, and stunted growth in children in the region. More than 35 million people living in the river basin still have to use its water for daily activities such as eating and bathing because of a lack of clean water.

The riverbank is piled up with Citarum River sediment. Thousands of people live in these wild lands, including unemployed youth, families forced to move due to frequent floods, and impoverished individuals who make a living by collecting recyclable waste. Many suffer from skin inflammation, itching due to contact with waste, and gastrointestinal issues. Meanwhile, children experience delayed development, kidney failure, chronic bronchitis, and a large percentage of cases with tumors. People living near the river extract water directly from reservoirs up to 150m deep, and after partial filtration, this water is supplied to neighboring villages. However, most residents have to rely on directly polluted water from the Citarum River for washing, laundry, and even drinking and cooking.

Marilao River located in the suburban area of Bulacan province in the Philippines is heavily polluted with various types of daily household waste. Moreover, it serves as a waterway for the transportation of goods for the leather, metal refining, and lead casting industries, causing the river's water to contain many hazardous chemicals such as copper, arsenic. The pollution has led to health issues for the residents in the river basin, and the fishing industry in Manila Bay faces increased difficulties. Despite local authorities implementing measures to prevent the imminent demise of this river, every day, every hour, this area still bears the brunt of various wastes from households along the industrial zones.

In 2007, Marilao along with its neighbor Meycauayan shared a spot on the list of the 30 most polluted places in the world in developing countries, according to a report by a New York-based private institute. In its report, 'The World's Worst Polluted Places' in 2007, the Blacksmith Institute stated: 'Industrial waste is dumped indiscriminately into the Meycauayan, Marilao, and Obando river system, a drinking and agricultural water source for 250,000 people living in and around the Meycauayan-Marilao area.' Marilao is also known for frequent flooding during the monsoon season. Particularly, a section of MacArthur Highway near SM City Marilao is prone to flooding.

The Sarno River flows through the Pompeii region to the south of the Gulf of Naples in Italy. This river is globally renowned for the highest pollution levels in the European region, with increasing amounts of household and industrial waste directly discharged into the river. The severe consequences of pollution go beyond contaminating the areas it flows through, extending to the sea near the Gulf of Naples region.

Being the most polluted river in Europe, spanning approximately 24 km, the Sarno faces issues due to the lack of drainage systems and the discharge from factories. Direct discharge of household waste into the river is a major factor contributing to the declining water quality. In 2017, water quality at 10 out of 16 monitored points along this river fell below the standards.

The Cuyahoga River is a river in the northeastern part of Ohio, USA. Outside Ohio, it is known for being the 'river that caught fire' - indeed, it caught fire more than once, leading to the environmental protection movement in the late 1960s. It flows from Hambden Township, Geauga County, Ohio down to Cuyahoga Falls, a stretch of 160 km. Here, it sharply bends northward and flows through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Then, it flows through Cleveland into Lake Erie. The river has a watershed of 2,105 km² covering six counties. The lower Cuyahoga River has been straightened several times. The original mouth of the river, about 1.2 km west of the present mouth, was a large inland lagoon. The present mouth is artificially straightened and lies just west of downtown Cleveland, allowing freighters to easily navigate between the river and the lake.

The Cuyahoga River is one of the most polluted rivers in the United States, serving as a direct discharge point for the Standard Oil refinery. The river, approximately 160 km long with a watershed area of about 2,100 km², constantly has a brownish oily film covering its surface. Moreover, there is a thick, several-inch layer of dark oil floating on the water, heavy enough to form clumps, concealing broken pieces and debris within, creating a chaotic floating mess. The oxygen concentration in the water is nearly zero, leading to the absence of any living organisms in the river except for Oscillatoria algae. The common color of the water in this river varies from gray to brown, and the flow velocity is almost zero.

The Buriganga River flows through the capital Dhaka of Bangladesh. The pollution level of the Buriganga River is extremely high due to various chemicals discharged into the river, including those from cement, soap, dye, leather, and paper factories, reaching up to 22,000m3 into the Buriganga River every day. Most of the tested chemicals found in this river belong to the group of 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and are highly toxic to humans. They can infiltrate the body through various types of daily food and drinks, gradually destroying different parts of the body.

In the distant past, a branch of the Ganges River used to reach the Bay of Bengal through the Dhaleshwari River. In the 20th century, groundwater and the river became polluted by polythenes and other hazardous substances from demolished buildings near the riverbank. The course of the Padma, as the main flow of the Ganges is known in Bangladesh, has changed significantly from 1600 to 2000 AD. It is challenging to accurately trace the different channels it flowed through, but it likely passed through Rampur Boalia, across Chalan Beel, the Dhaleshwari River, and Buriganga, through Dhaka to the mouth of the Meghna River. In the 18th century, the downstream flow of the river extended further south. Around the mid-19th century, the main stream shifted through the southern channel, known as Kirtinasa. Gradually, the Padma applied its current course.

In the watershed of the Matanza Riachuelo River, about 3.5 million residents are living. Nowadays, waste has completely taken over the river, turning it into a dark and foul-smelling stream. In 1993, a river cleanup project with a total cost of up to USD 250 million was approved, but in reality, only 1 million USD was used to address the pollution level of this river (Information from Argentina's Página/12 newspaper). From its source down to La Noria Bridge on Avenida General Paz, the river is often called Río La Matanza and from that point onwards as Riachuelo. Approximately 3.5 million people live in the watershed over 2,240 km2.

The main branches of the Matanza River are the Cañuelas, Chacón, and Morales streams in the Buenos Aires Province, and the Cildáñe stream in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area. Matanza receives a large amount of industrial waste from many factories along the river, especially from leather workshops, making Matanza a polluted river. Among the most dangerous pollutants are heavy metals and effluents from the saturated classes of the basin. A politically controversial issue at least since the 1862 - 1868 period of President Bartolomé Mitre's government,[6] the plight of Riachuelo has attracted the attention of various public figures, notably artist and Greenpeace activist Nicolás García Uriburu, who dyed the river green in 1970, and World Water Day to draw attention to the issue.