International Rivers Day

This has been a busy ten days for anyone involved in rivers. The Big River Watch in the UK (the Rivers Trust), combined with the Great UK Water Blitz (Earthwatch) and the Great British Beach Clean (Marine Conservation Society) have all finished - well, for now at least. And hot on their heels - or should I say their flow - comes World Rivers Day or World Rivers Day.

The day celebrates earth's waterways. It both raises awareness of the values our rivers have to us all, and encourage better care and stewardship of rivers worldwide.

Back in 2005, the UN launched the Water for Life decade, the aim being to raise awareness of the need to care better for the water resources we have.

World Rivers Day was established to a proposal which was initiated by Mark Angelo, an internationally renowned river advocate. Angelo had already founded BC Rivers Day in west Canada since 1980. And his proposal for a World Rivers Day was approved, being a good fit with the Water for Life decade theme.

Put the rivers enthusiasts together and the first World Rivers Day flowed very smoothly, attracting celebrations in dozens of country. Last year, several million people in inearly 100 countries celebrated the values our waterways have.

Why not join in and celebrate a river near you? If you can't get to a river or its pouring with rain, you could find your nearest river and work out where it starts and finishes and what's along its way. There are lots of events taking place to celebrate this day. You don't have to be a part of an event. You could equally just go and sit by a river and watch the water on its way and listen to the sounds of nature around you. If you've no rivers near you, relax with Naturescapes and their You Tube video. (I watched and listened to the first ten minutes and started to doze off, I found it so relaxing.)

Some people haven't waited for World Rivers Day or World Cleanup Day. As these inspiring people said in their video, they took action. Have a look - the video is from SEVA Impact Stories:

When you think of the longer rivers, which ones spring to mind? The Nile, threading its way over 4,000 miles with its monitor lizards, hippos, Nile crocodiles and tigerfish? The infamous Amazon with its alligators, river dolphins, capybaras, and giant river otters? Or the Ganges (flowing across north India and into Bangladesh) with the very rare river dolphin, freshwater turtles, gharials and Royal Bengal tiger?

Perhaps the Mississippi weaving its way from Lake Itasca down to the Gulf of Mexico comes first to mind, which is a great migration route for both birds and fish, and is home to animals such as otters, beaver and coyotes. There's the Thames in the UK - what a lot of history that river has seen! Did you know that there's a project called Transforming the Thames? One of the things they are doing there is planting seagrass as this video from ZSL shows.

There's the Orinoco in Venezuela and Brazil, with the critically endangered Orinoco crocodile (I don't fancy meeting one of those, although I know every animal matters), the giant anaconda and river dolphin.

The Danube which runs through 10 countries and several capital cities, and Rewilding Europe is working in the Danube Delta to improve "the ecological integrity and natural functioning of 40,000 hectares of wetland and steppe habitat". Find out about it here - it sounds fantastic! Species in the huge Danube Delta include herons, storks, cormorants and terns - and beavers are coming back!

There's also the Saint Lawrence (US & Canada) going from the Great Lakes through to the Atlantic Ocean via east Canada. Save the River say that the Great Lakes hold nearly 20% of the world’s freshwater – covering about 94,000 square miles!  And the St. Lawrence River Valley is a vital part of the Atlantic Migratory Fly-Way, the chief pathway for the seasonal migration of many bird species. Bald eagles are making a comeback. The river has threatened and endangered species, including bald eagles (who are making a comeback), osprey and the Indiana bat.

We need our rivers in good health - and so do the wildlife who depend on them