The document provides an overview of major rivers around the world, detailing their characteristics, significance, and geographical features. It covers notable rivers such as the Nile, Amazon, and Ganges, highlighting their importance to human life and ecosystems. The document underscores the economic and cultural relevance of these rivers while mentioning challenges like pollution and resource sharing among countries.

1. By Miguel Vella 3.01

2. Rivers are found all around the world. They are all different in sizes or
shapes but the structure of the rivers are all the same. These are :
Watershed: an area of highland (e.g. Mountains) forming the edge
of the river basin.
River Basin: the area of land drained by a river flowing into a main
river.
Source: from where the river begins.
Tributary: a small stream flowing into the main river.
Channel: where a river flows.
Mouth: where a river flows into a lake or the sea.

3. These are very important for us humans to get water to drink from or
to make fields for the growth of fruit and vegetables and for other
wild animals, livestock, etc..
But then there are the major rivers of the world which are:
Africa: Nile, Zaire (Congo), Zambezi
Asia: Ganges, Volga, Yangtze
Australia: Murray-Darling
Europe: Danube, Rhine
North America: St. Lawrence, Mississippi, Colorado
South America: Amazon

4. The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa, generally regarded
as the longest river in the world. It is 6,650 km (4,130 miles) long. The Nile is an
"international" river as its water resources are shared by eleven
countries, namely, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. In
particular, the Nile River provides the primary water resource and so it is the life
artery for its downstream countries such as Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two
major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is longer and rises
in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source still
undetermined but located in either Rwanda or Burundi. It flows north through
Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile is the source of
most of the water and fertile soil. It begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into
Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet near the Sudanese capital of
Khartoum.

5. The Congo River (in the past also known as the Zaire River) is a
river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured
depths in excess of 220 m (720 ft). It is the third largest river in the
world by volume of water discharged. Additionally, its overall
length of 4,700 km (2,920 mi) makes it the ninth longest river. The
Congo gets its name from the ancient Kingdom of Kongo which
inhabited the lands at the mouth of the river. The Democratic
Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, both
countries lying along the river's banks, are named after it. Between
1971 and 1997 the government of then-Zaire called it the Zaire
River.

6. The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-
longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from
Africa. The area of its basin is 1,390,000 square kilometres
(540,000 sq mi), slightly less than half that of the Nile. The 2,574-kilometre-
long river (1,599 mi) has its source in Zambia and flows through
eastern Angola, along the eastern border of Namibia and the northern border
of Botswana, then along the border
between Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, where it crosses that country
to empty into the Indian Ocean.The Zambezi's most noted feature is Victoria
Falls. Other notable falls include the Chavuma Falls at the border between
Zambia and Angola, and Ngonye Falls, near Sioma in Western Zambia.There are
two main sources of hydroelectric power on the river, the Kariba Dam, which
provides power to Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the Cahora Bassa Dam in
Mozambique, which provides power to Mozambique and South Africa. There is
also a smaller power station at Victoria Falls.

7. The Ganges or Ganga is a trans-boundary river of India and Bangladesh. The 2,525 km
(1,569 mi) river rises in the western Himalayasin the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows
south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it empties
into the Bay of Bengal. It is the longest river of India and is the second greatest river in the
world by water discharge. The Ganges basin is the most heavily populated river basin in the
world, with over 400 million people and a population density of about 1,000 inhabitants per
square mile (390 /km2).The Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindusand is also a lifeline to
millions of Indians who live along its course and depend on it for their daily needs. It is
worshiped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism. It has also been important historically: many
former provincial or imperial capitals have been located on its banks. The Ganges was ranked
among the five most polluted rivers of the world in 2007, with fecal coliform levels in the river
near Varanasi more than one hundred times the official Indian government limits. Pollution
threatens not only humans, but also more than 140 fish species, 90 amphibian species and
the endangered Ganges river dolphin. The Ganga Action Plan, an environmental initiative to
clean up the river, has been a major failure thus far, due to corruption and lack of technical
expertise, lack of good environmental planning, and lack of support from religious
authorities.

8. The Volga is the longest river in Europe; it is also Europe's largest river in terms of
discharge and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the
national river of Russia. Eleven of the twenty largest cities of Russia, including the
capital, Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage basin. Some of the largest reservoirs in
the world can be found along the Volga. The river has a symbolic meaning in Russian
culture and is often referred to as Volga-Matushka (Mother Volga) in Russian
literature and folklore. It belongs to the closed basin of the Caspian Sea. Rising in the Valdai
Hills 225 meters (738 ft) above sea level northwest of Moscow and about 320 kilometers
(200 mi) southeast of Saint Petersburg, the Volga heads east past Lake
Sterzh, Tver, Dubna, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan. From there it turns
south, flows past Ulyanovsk, Tolyatti, Samara, Saratov and Volgograd, and discharges into
the Caspian Sea below Astrakhan at 28 meters (92 ft) below sea level. At its most strategic
point, it bends toward the Don ("the big bend"). Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, is located
there.

9. he Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang is the longest river in Asia, and
the third longest in the world. It flows for 6,418 kilometres (3,988 mi)
from the glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Qinghai eastward
across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East
China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the biggest rivers by discharge
volume in the world. The Yangtze drains one-fifth of the land area of
the People's Republic of China (PRC) and its river basin is home to one-
third of the PRC's population. Along with the Yellow River, the Yangtze is
the most important river in the history, culture and economy of China.
The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of
the PRC's GDP. The Yangtze River flows through a wide array of
ecosystems and is itself habitat to several endemic and endangered
species including the Chinese alligator and the Yangtze sturgeon. For
thousands of years, people have used the river for
water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking
and war. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydro-
electric power station in the world

10. The Murray–Darling Basin is a large geographical area in the interior
of southeastern Australia, whose name is derived from its two major
rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River. It drains around one-
seventh of the Australian land mass, and is one of the most significant
agricultural areas in Australia. It spans most of the states of New South
Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory, and parts of the
states of Queensland (lower third) and South Australia (south-east
corner). It is 3,375 kilometres (2,097 mi) in length (the Murray River is
2,530 km (1,570 mi) long). Most of the 1,061,469
km2 (409,835 sq mi) basin is flat, low-lying and far inland, and receives
little direct rainfall. The many rivers it contains tend to be long and
slow-flowing, and carry a volume of water that is large only by
Australian standards.

11. The Danube is a river in Central Europe, the continent's second longest
after the Volga.
Classified as an international waterway, it originates in the town
of Donaueschingen which is in the Black Forest of Germany at the
confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg. The Danube then flows
southeast for 2,872 km (1,785 mi), passing through four Central
European capitals before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube
Delta in Romania and Ukraine. Once a long-standing frontier of
the Roman Empire, the river passes through or touches the borders of ten
countries: Romania(29.0% of basin
area), Hungary (11.6%), Serbia (10.2%), Austria (10.0%), Germany (7.0%),
Bulgaria (5.9%), Slovakia (5.9%),Croatia (4.4%), Ukraine (3.8%), and Mol
dova (1.6%). Its drainage basin extends into nine more.

12. The Rhine is a river that flows from the Swiss canton of Grisons in the
southeastern Swiss Alps to the North Sea coast in the Netherlands and
is the twelfth longest river in Europe, at about 1,233 km (766 mi),with
an average discharge of more than 2,000 m3/s (71,000 cu ft/s). The
Rhine and the Danube formed most of the northern inland frontier of
the Roman Empire and, since those days, the Rhine has been a vital
and navigable waterway carrying trade and goods deep inland. It has
also served as a defensive feature and has been the basis for regional
and international borders. The many castles and
prehistoric fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a
waterway. River traffic could be stopped at these locations, usually for
the purpose of collecting tolls, by the state that controlled that portion
of the river.

13. The St. Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from
southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North
America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It
is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin. The
river traverses the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and
forms part of the international boundary between Ontario
and New York in the United States. The river runs
3,058 kilometres (1,900 mi) from the farthest headwater to the
mouth and 1,197 km (743.8 mi) from the outflow of Lake Ontario.
River St.Lawrence have a river basin with the capacity of 1,344,200
km2.

14. The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage
system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States (though
its drainage basin reaches into Canada), it rises in
northern Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for 2,530 miles
(4,070 km) to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its
many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 31 US
states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian
Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and tenth
largest river in the world. The river either borders or cuts through the
states of
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, A
rkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Mississippi river have a basin that
holds 2,981,076 km2 of water.

15. The Colorado River is the principal river of
the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. The 1,450-
mile (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that
encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Rising in
the central Rocky Mountains in the U.S., the river flows generally
southwest across the Colorado Plateau before reaching Lake
Mead on the Arizona–Nevada line, where it turns south towards
the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado
forms a large delta, emptying into the Gulf of
California between Baja California and Sonora. The river’s basin
holds 637,137 km2 of water.

16. The Amazon River in South America is the second longest river
in the world and by far the largest by water flow with an
average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers
combined (not including Madeira and Rio Negro, which are
tributaries of the Amazon). The Amazon, which has the
largest drainage basin in the world, about 7,050,000 square
kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi), accounts for approximately one-
fifth of the world's total river flow and covers about 40% of South
America. The length of this humongous river is approximately
6,400 km (4,000 mi).