Yangtze River (6,300km)
Longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world
River basin is home to nearly 500 million people, nearly a third of the country’s population
Longest in the world to flow entirely within one country
River basin accounts for 40% of China’s freshwater resources, more than 70% of rice production and more than 70% of fishery production
Pollution: How & Who
According to the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission’s 2017 report, annual discharge of sewage and industrial waste was 35.3 billion tonnes (47% of China’s total sewage discharge). The principal culprits are agricultural run-off from farms along the river’s banks, as well as pollution from the surrounding industrial belts and high-tech development zones. Extensive loss of floodplains to agriculture has reduced basin’s ability to detoxify pollutants
Effects of Pollution
Home to more than 350 species of fish and over 160 amphibian species. The Chinese alligator, in the lower reaches of the Yangtze, is the most threatened crocodilian species in the world. The Yangtze basin is the sole habitat of the critically endangered finless porpoise, which is seriously threatened by extreme pollution. Another species native to the river basin, the Chinese paddlefish, has not been seen alive since 2003, while the Chinese river dolphin, or baiji, has long been considered to be functionally extinct despite occasional unconfirmed sightings