Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.

2018

River System
Report
about

The Yellow River

Pollution

“10 Interesting the Yellow River Facts.” My Interesting Facts

Figure 1

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

Table of Contents
1. Introduction: .............................................................................................................. 3
2. River System Overview: .............................................................................................. 3
2.1 Introduction to the river....................................................................................................... 3
2.2 Map of Yellow River System ................................................................................................. 4
2.3 Importance of the Yellow River ............................................................................................ 5
3. River System issues .................................................................................................... 6
3.1 Issue of the Yellow River ...................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Impact on human beings ...................................................................................................... 7
3.3 Impact on the environment ........................................................................................... 7
4. Management Strategy ............................................................................................... 8
4.1 Recommendation ................................................................................................................. 8
4.2 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 8
5. Work cited ................................................................................................................. 9

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

1. Introduction:
Rivers are natural flowing
watercourses, which primarily
carry freshwater. Throughout
history in all the countries in the
world, people have settled at
their shores and have made
their homes by them.
A lot of people are depending
on it every day, in such for their
drinking water, the crops, for
easy ways to transport people
and good and of course for
industry. “Just Fun Facts.” Fun and Interesting Site, Figure 2
They are very important to
most of the living organisms.
Depending on which country, nowadays the rivers can be so polluted that the water flowing
through, is unable to be used for any activity, especially for drinking. Such rivers are the
Mississippi river in the USA, the Sarno River in Italy and the Marilao River in the Philippines.
These are all rivers that are located in different countries in the world. The second largest
river in China , the Yellow River, is one of the most polluted rivers in the World. First of all I
will give you basic information about this river and I will discuss one of the biggest issues
associated with it.

2. River System Overview:

2.1 Introduction to
the river

With a 742.443
kilometre squared size
and the length of about
5464 kilometre (Delta
Alliance - Nile Delta),
the mighty Yellow
River is the 6th longest
river in the world. In
fact, it is the second
largest river flowing
“Facing Water Challenges in the Yellow River Basin, China: A just through one country, which is
WWDR3 Case Study.” WaterWikinet RSS, Figure 3 China, after the Yangtze river. The
river is also known as the Huang He

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

river in Chinese . It got its name from the silts that are carried downstream on its flow and
then turn it into that particular yellow colour. This huge amount of loess sediment has the
power to change the course that the river is flowing. (WWF) It is perhaps the muddiest river
in the world, not only because of the silt, also because of evaporation and infiltration in the
lower part of it.
Its source is located in the Bayankala Mountains in the Qinghai province in western China.
The Huang He river flows through 9 provinces of China and then ends by flowing into the
Bohai Sea. (WWF)
The river basin of the Yellow River (Figure 3) is a very important historical monument (WWF)
and the birthplace of the Chinese Civilization. A lot of people settled near the river over the
centuries and the Chinese people call the river “Mother River”( Eco-Business) and is also known
as “The Cradle of Civilization”( Eco-Business). The basin population is nowadays as high as 189
million people.
There are 4 different key species that are settled at the river. The Leopard, the sike deer, the
white-tailed sea eagle and the great bustard. The overall Livelihood facts from the Yellow
River are agriculture, mining and hydropower. The different tributaries in the Yellow River
only make up about 2 % of the landmass (Eco-Business), but now it gives about 12% =
110million people (Eco-Business)of the population support for their life.
But the unexpected floods that are occurring every once in a while, gave the river the name
“Chinese Sorrow”( Eco-Business) . Those floods have made it unwise to build big cities at its
banks. The biggest problem of the river is that the huge amount of sediment often builds
up huge banks, silting up the river. Those banks eventually block the flow of the water and
finally cause the floods.
But the Yellow River carries more than just one issue with himself. For example at the
source on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, it is affected by climate change and in the middle
regions are dried up because of over development. When cities along the side of the river
extracted the water from the river to use it for factories constructions, homes and
infrastructure. (Eco-Business), the river dried up, and some towns needed to queue every day
to get water. But the biggest issue that the river has, is its pollution mostly happening in the
lower reaches.

2.2 Map of Yellow River System

“China River Maps 2018.” Yangtze River Cruises Figure 4

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

“Schematic Map of the Yellow River (Huang He) Flow Path

01A.” To Main Menu of All Websites at DrBen.Net, Figure 5

2.3 Importance of the Yellow River

The yellow river is for China as important as the Nile for Egypt and the Rhine to Germany.
The yellow river has its river basin where the birthplace of the Chinese Civilization first was
formed, and it is still the most important source of water for 140 million people, such as
water for the crops on the farms, for the agriculture, for thousands of factories or as a
trading route from one side of China to the other. Along the course of the Huang He are also
huge deposits of minerals like coal, oil, natural gas and rear earth. Those resources are
becoming more important for China’s economic rise.
The river is not as threatening as years ago, where a lot of floods occurred and destroyed
the cities with its enormous waves. This is because of the constructions made and the flood
control techniques which are now used, such as dams.

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

3. River System issues

3.1 Issue of the Yellow River

The yellow river is one of the most

polluted rivers that are present on
Earth. The river has already been
polluted since the human beings have
built canals and industries that throw
their wastes right into the river.
The Chinese government says that
about two thirds of the Yellow Rivers Branigan, Tania. “One-Third of China's Yellow River 'Unfit for Drinking
or Agriculture'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media,
water is too polluted to be used as
Figure 6
drinking water.

In the year of 2008 the yellow river was so polluted from the factory wastes that are
dumped out, and of the city sewage, which the people release into the water.

In 2017, samples of different river places have stated, that 33.8% (The Guardian, Guardian News and
Media ) of the water was at stage level 5, which means that it is unsafe for drinking and for
agriculture and industrial use. Only about 16 % reached level one or two (The Guardian, Guardian
News and Media), considered safe for the overall household use. From the samples 70 % made
up from the industry and manufacturing discharges. (The Guardian, Guardian News and Media) In the
samples, there were no specific pollutants noticeable. Since 2006 the pollution has slightly
worsened. Different tests have proven that the Yellow River is now polluted about two
thirds of its self. There has been designated that about 50 % of the whole river is biologically
dead, which means that the river is too polluted.

As the polluted water is flowing through cities, it also releases a really horrible smell, this
then spreads through the town, especially to the people who do work near or at the river
itself. There is loads of garbage flowing with the course of the water, spreading all over
China, threatening the wildlife.

Also the loess full of sediment and the mineral rich soils that are released into the Yellow
River has the power to change the colour of water. Unfortunately this then also has the
power to change the course in which the river is flowing.
Small fine grains travel a long distance occurring because of the interaction with different
water banks and riverbeds. This then produces minimum of friction.

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

It has been figured out that

there is 10-20 times more
sediment than any limits
described by the existing
physical models. More than 80
percent of the river basin is
chronically polluted because of
the waste products that are
placed into the river. Canals,
which empty their waste out
into the Yellow River were
“Yellow River, China.” Infy World, Figure 7 filled with fish, but now there is just a
purple colour water, from the red
waste produced by different chemical plants. The creatures that then drink from the river,
as it is their water source, then get easily killed. An Example are the goats that have been
drinking the polluted water. These then got killed after a period of time, as the river was too
polluted and was unsafe to be used for anything.

3.2 Impact on human beings

There has been a huge number of increase from different illnesses around the river
population. The increase of cancer has been rising rapidly. Also the numbers of birth defects
and the water borne disease has been rising. Most villages are affected of this, because they
use the water in general use, like we do. In some villages, a lot of people get the cancer
because of that, these are then called the cancer villages. Different factories, tanneries,
paper mills are blamed for the deaths in the villages. An example of such a village in China is
the Xiaojidian village (Facts and Details), in which the people mainly are affected of the common
stomach and esophageal cancer (Facts and Details). The village is a small village that only
consists of a population of about 1,300 people. 70 people died in a timeline between just
five years, and a thousand more in the neighboured countries because of the cancer leading
from the river source.

3.3 Impact on the environment

The environment near and at the river is damaged horribly. There are living organisms that
are extinguished and are dying from diseases that are spread by the water and its pollution.
Researchers from the Yellow River Estuary Nature Reserve reported that the formation of
land formed by the silt is a good opportunity for oil drilling. The Shengli oil field exists since
the 1960s and attracted many chemical firms. Since the beginning of our century migratory
birds tried to avoid this area. The locals also blame the pollution. Some wetlands are now
home for chemical plants.

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

The Tengger Desert lies on the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Coal is mined there and it
is ideal for coal chemical industry which have barely water treatment facilities and dump all
the chemicals in the desert. The ground water gets easily polluted.

There is a small percentage of water that is safe that it can be contaminated by the humans
or other living organisms that need it to survive. The problem is that you can’t see which
water is safe to be used and which water is unsafe to drink. The fishes that were in the
yellow river are now dying one by one, because of the polluted water in which they live in
and the soil is polluted especially with metals which will affect the food chain.

4. Management Strategy

4.1 Recommendation
The pollutions in many other rivers are plastic issues. But the Yellow River does not only
have the plastic waste in the river. There have been discussions how to reduce the pollution
in the Huang He river. For Example, that the industries that do release the waste products
that they produce, into the Yellow River, should reduce the electricity. This is what the
China’s Cabinet suggested to do to undertake the huge pollution going on in the Huang He
river. (The Guardian, Guardian News and Media)
There is another example of environmental improvement. In 2017 in the Estuary Nature
Reserve boundary markers were re-established and firms which didn’t follow the
regulations were removed of the reserve (中外对话 China Dialogue). There are also more
environmental organisations created to save the river source. The new generation is more
conscious.

4.2 Conclusion
To conclude, the Yellow River located in China does not have an easy way to deal with the
pollution in the river. There have been drastic events, in which the pollution has worsened,
so that the people around the river suffer bad health conditions and the environment got
destroyed and almost irreversible polluted. There are 189 million people that are depending
on the river every single day.
The awareness of taking care of the Yellow River’s future is rising slowly and small steps
have been taken by the government, the industry and the young generation of the
population. But it is a long way to go to see the first changes.

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

5. Work cited
Websites:

“10 Interesting the Yellow River Facts.” My Interesting Facts, www.myinterestingfacts.com/the-yellow-river-facts/.

Sutori, www.sutori.com/story/huang-he-yellow-river-valley-civilization--iZ7Fne1V8c9jRHo623f3HDxC.

Agroportal. “Yellow River Delta.” Delta Alliance - Nile Delta, www.delta-alliance.org/wings/china-yellow-river-

wing/yellowriverdelta.

“Asia-Pacific | Pollution Turns Yellow River Red.” BBC News, BBC, 22 Nov. 2006, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-
pacific/6172360.stm.

alexineofmacedon, ~. “Yellow River (Huang He) and Yangtze River.” MACEDONIAN HISTORIAN, 30 May 2018,
dinromerohistory.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/yellow-river-huang-he-and-yangtze-river/.

Branigan, Tania. “One-Third of China's Yellow River 'Unfit for Drinking or Agriculture'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and
Media, 25 Nov. 2008, www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/nov/25/water-china.

Eco-Business. “Keeping the Yellow River Flowing.” Eco-Business, www.eco-business.com/news/keeping-the-yellow-river-

flowing/.

Gifford, Rob. “Yellow River Pollution Is Price of Economic Growth.” NPR, NPR, 11 Dec. 2007,
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16951806.

Greer, Charles E., and Igor Vladimirovich Popov. “Huang He.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1
Nov. 2016, www.britannica.com/place/Huang-He.

Hays, Jeffrey. “YELLOW RIVER.” Facts and Details, factsanddetails.com/china/cat15/sub103/item448.html.

“How 'River Chiefs' Are Cleaning up China's Polluted Waterways.” South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post, 20
Sept. 2017, www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2111824/how-cleaning-chinas-polluted-rivers-got-personal.

“Journal from the Yellow River.” 中外对话 China Dialogue, www.chinadialogue.net/culture/10542-Journal-from-the-

Yellow-River/en.

“Just Fun Facts.” Fun and Interesting Site, 1 Jan. 1968, justfunfacts.com/interesting-facts-about-the-yellow-river/.

Reporter, Daily Mail. “China's Yellow River Is 'Unsafe for Any Use' Because of High Pollution Level.” Daily Mail Online,
Associated Newspapers, 25 Nov. 2008, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1089230/Chinas-Yellow-River-unsafe-use-high-
pollution-level.html.

Shanghai, Malcolm Moore in. “Yellow River Too Polluted to Drink.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 25 Nov. 2008,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/3519731/Yellow-River-too-polluted-to-drink.html.

Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/rivers-definition-lesson-quiz.html.

“The Yellow River - Huáng Hé 黄河.” History of Relations between China and Japan, www.chinasage.info/yellowriver.htm#.

“Top 12 Most Polluted Rivers in the World: Don't Drink the Water!!” Listaka, 6 Apr. 2017, listaka.com/top-12-most-
polluted-rivers-in-the-world/.

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Sophia Haller E-09a River System Report Yellow River Pollution 9.December.2018

WBL. “The Geography of the Yellow River.” ChinaHighlights, 4 July 2018,

www.chinahighlights.com/yellowriver/geography.htm.

“Why the Yellow River Is so Yellow - and Why It's Prone to Floods.” South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post,
12 June 2017, www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2094153/why-chinas-yellow-river-so-yellow-and-why-
its-prone-flooding.

“Yellow River, China.” Infy World, 24 Jan. 2018, www.infyworld.com/yellow-river-china/.

“Yellow River (Huang He).” WWF, wwf.panda.org/our_work/water/rivers/yellow_river/.

王建芬 . “Chemical Pollution Threatens Yellow River Delta.” Pressure Leaves Millions of Youth Exposed to Suicide Risk -
China - Chinadaily.com.cn, www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-12/25/content_19165511.htm.

Pictures

“10 Interesting the Yellow River Facts.” My Interesting Facts, www.myinterestingfacts.com/the-yellow-river-facts/.

Branigan, Tania. “One-Third of China's Yellow River 'Unfit for Drinking or Agriculture'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and
Media, 25 Nov. 2008, www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/nov/25/water-china.

“China River Maps 2018.” Yangtze River Cruises, www.yangtze-river-cruises.com/yangtze-river-guide/china-river-

maps.html.

“Facing Water Challenges in the Yellow River Basin, China: A WWDR3 Case Study.” WaterWikinet RSS,
waterwiki.net/index.php?title=Facing_Water_Challenges_in_the_Yellow_River_Basin%2C_China%3A_A_WWDR3_Case_St
udy.

“Just Fun Facts.” Fun and Interesting Site, 1 Jan. 1968, justfunfacts.com/interesting-facts-about-the-yellow-river/.

“Schematic Map of the Yellow River (Huang He) Flow Path 01A.” To Main Menu of All Websites at DrBen.Net,
www.drben.net/ChinaReport/Sources/China_Maps/Yellow_River/Map-Overview-Yellow-River-Flow01A.html.

“Yellow River, China.” Infy World, 24 Jan. 2018, www.infyworld.com/yellow-river-china/.

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