Rivers and Their Uses: Lifelines of Human Prosperity
Notes: Uses: carrying of rain water off the land to the sea-drains to a country fertilizes soil-deposition of sand and soil in the plains-the gangetic plain and the Nile valley source of irrigation-greater agricultural production; source of elcctricity means of communication.
Rivers are of great uses to man. Indeed, they contribute a lot to his prosperity. One of the greatest uses of a river is the carrying of the surplus rain-water off the land to the sea. Rivers are to a country what drains are to a town. But for them many countries would have sub-merged under water.
Rivers fertilize the soil. They rise in the mountains. As they run down the mountains they carry with them sand and soil from the mountain sides. When they rush through the plains, all this sand and soil are deposited in the plains as fertile soil. The most fertile areas of land, like the Gangetic plain in India and the Nile valley in Egypt are the products of the deposition of fertile soil by the rivers. Rivers are a great source of the irrigation which makes forgreater agricultural production and turns deserts into smiling gardens. The waters of the five Rivers of Punjab have turned millions of acres of desert into fertile lands. The green revolution in Punjub has been largely due to its rivers.
Rivers are a great source of electricity too. In all countries of the world to day the rivers with strong currents are harnessed to produce hydroelectric power. Rivers serve as a very necessary means of communication. An immense amount of merchandise is still carried up and down the rivers by the ships and boats. Rivers have also beauty which gives men pleasure and inspires ennobling thoughts and feeligns in them.
