The most polluted river in the world

In China there is a river that crosses the industrial district of Linfen and is bringing more of a headache to local politicians. The same  is used by different environmental and critical agencies as a symbol of  the excessive pollution resulting from the frantic industrial growth  that has experienced the asian country during the last 30 years. However, and although it is hard to believe, there is a river that is in worse condition.

This is Citarum, who  begins in West Java in Indonesia and in its 300-kilometer journey turns  into the public waste dump of more than 15 million people and endless small local factories throwing all their waste into the water. Only  in home wasteland the river receives more than 2500 cubic meters of garbage  daily, and that should be added the waste thrown by the hundreds of  textile workshops, main economic engine of the region, which throw all  kinds of dyes and chemicals at water, including products such as arsenic and mercury, used for fabric treatment. 

River pollution is a relatively recent phenomenon, occurring for the most part during the last 25 years; Which  has pushed the former fishermen to turn to the informal collection of  waste to survive (which they sell to different deposits at the end of  the day for a miserable amount of money). Contaminated  water, putrid stench and a brown color, like the water of the Ganges in India, used by most of the population for bathing, cooking and drinking. In addition to the rural areas of Java, the river also supplies 80% of the water consumed in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia. However, as expected, due to the strong social inequality the more affluent areas have their own water purification plants.