1. Draw and label the Ganges and Yangtze Rivers on a map

2. Ganges and Yangtze Rivers
Pollution

3. GPS
SS7G10 The student will discuss environmental issues across Southern and Eastern Asia.
a. Describe the causes and effects of pollution on the Yangtze and Ganges Rivers.

4. E. Q.
How does pollution affect the Ganges and Yangtze Rivers and the people who live near them?

5. D. Q.
What makes a river polluted?

6. .

7. Ganges River - India 1557 miles long (2506 km)
Starts in an ice cave on the southern slopes of the Himalayas
Flows eastward & empties into the Bay of Bengal.

8. Importance of Ganges River
Farmers depend on the river for their crops.
Millions depend on river for washing, cooking, drinking & to carry away their waste.
Many worship the Ganges as a goddess, whose waters will cleanse them of sin and help them attain moksha, or salvation, by carrying their ashes to heaven.

9. Threats to Ganges River
Pollution
Rapidly modernizing India
Industrial needs
Water needs

10. Pollution from Cities
Local industries dump toxic chemicals into the river
Sewage treatment plants dump raw sewage into the river

11. Problems:
nearly 1 billion liters per day - of mostly untreated raw sewage
Inadequate cremation procedures:
large number of partially burnt or unburnt corpses floating down the Ganga

12. Effects of Pollution:
People suffer from skin diseases and other health problems
Decreased farm harvests
Livestock become sick

13. A woman with a skin disease rests near offerings and trash on the banks of the Ganges in Kanpur, India.

14. Raw sewage, shown as the darker section of water, flowing into the Ganges at Kanpur.

15. Yangtze (Chang Jiang) River - China

16. Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) - China
Longest river in Asia: over 6,300 kilometers long
Third longest river in the world
Empties into East China Sea

17. Importance of Yangtze River
Has largest hydro-electric dam in world
Important for transportation – 1 of world’s busiest waterways
Important for farming

18. Threats to Yangtze River
Pollution from industrial and agricultural discharges, along with sewage and ship waste:
Sewage and industrial waste dumping totalled 23.4 billion tons in 2001
many industrial enterprises established in 1960s-1970s have become the main sources of river pollution.

19. Effects of Pollution
Numbers of animal species declining: from 126 to 52 species
Causes diseases like cancer
Drinking water of 500 cities threatened
3 Gorges Dam Reservoir: seriously polluted with pesticides, fertilizers and sewage from passenger boats

20. Pollution

21. Summary: Thinking Map Cause and Effect Flow Map
Causes of Pollution
on the
Ganges and Yangtze
Rivers
Effects of Pollution
on the
Ganges and Yangtze
Rivers