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For millennia, rivers were the easiest highways to follow in most inhabited areas. Many flooded annually, whereby fresh soils were deposited for the residents to till crops. The ancient Egyptian empire never would have sprung up in the desert without the Nile flooding its banks. Rivers were also well suited for carrying away unwanted junk - sewage, trash and other things. Over the centuries, rivers became a necessary evil. They were needed, but were often too polluted to be useful for much else. They were also dammed and the banks enforced. Humans began to fight nature's tide, and sooner or later suffered for it. Ecosystems and their constituents, including the the mighty salmon, have collapsed around the world. Runoff from crops and cities cause problems hundreds of miles away near the coast. A vigorous period of dam building took place from the late 19th to the mid 20th century. Some of greatest engineering feats were to dam up rivers such as the Nile and the Colorado for energy production. A realization has been spreading over the past few decades that damming up a river and dumping whatever we want in them is financially irresponsible and unhealthy. Fishermen are affected by the lack of anadromous fish and pollutants coming out to sea can killing off shellfish. Cities along rivers are severely flooded because annual snow melting cannot spread out across the natural flood plain because the Army Corps of Engineering has placed barriers up and down the river. Ecosystems cannot be sustainable with river locks blocking the flow of water. Dam removal has become a new way to fight for the health of rivers. Keeping water in the rivers instead of to desert crops with terrible water management is also a way to make a difference. Rivers and dams can be addressed right from your own backyard. With thousands of rivers, each with its own vulnerabilities, everyone can make a difference.
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