Yangtze River China 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
Yangtze River basin accounts for 40% of China’s freshwater resources, more than 70% of rice production and more than 70% of fishery production
EFFECTS OF POLLUTION
Siltation and loss of wetlands and lakes
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)
• Agricultural run-off from farms
along its banks
• Industrial pollution from industrial belts and high-tech development zones around the Yangtze
• Extensive loss of floodplains to agriculture has reduced basin’s ability to detoxify pollutants