Your Mission
When you take a bath, you stop water from going down the drain with a plug. Another kind of drain needs a “plug”—a storm drain. When it rains, litter and other waste washes down storm drains and pollutes rivers. You can be the “plug” that keeps litter and other pollutants out of rivers!

When It Rains, It Drains and Changes
How do people change rivers? Why do they change them? They build dams to control flooding, store water, and provide electricity, and aqueducts to transport water far from rivers. Pollution also changes rivers.

Rainwater, melting snow, and water from garden hoses can wash engine oil, lawn fertilizer, litter, and other things into storm drains and, finally, into ponds, lakes, rivers, or the sea.

The rain that doesn’t soak into the ground, but flows over the surface and into rivers, is called runoff. Runoff can wash straight into streams, wetlands, and rivers. This runoff can pollute surface water and groundwater and pose risks to people as well as to aquatic plants and animals.

Meet Scrub, a soap bubble whose “Excellent Adventure” could mean trouble for a river. Or learn how people in Fort Worth, Texas, restored their lake. (City of Fort Worth Environmental Management Department)

Down the Drain . . .
Next, meet Andrew and Emily, who don’t know that litter and other waste can pollute rivers. Brace yourself, because it’s not a pretty story. (You can read a longer version of the story too, and see a picture of Andrew and Emily’s neighborhood. (Download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.) (National Geographic Society)

Andrew and Emily want to go to the playground. But Dad asks them to help change the oil in his car. They drain the thick, dirty oil out of the car engine, and Dad carries the pan of dirty oil to the curb and pours it down the storm drain.

Then Mom asks Andrew and Emily to help in the garden. “We can make the vegetables grow really big!” says Mom. She sprinkles lots of fertilizer. “I don’t think it’s going to rain today,” says Mom, so Andrew turns the garden hose on full blast. Some of the water runs into the street.

Finally, Emily and Andrew get to the playground and hang with Luis and Maria, who had bought a six-pack of sodas and lots of candy bars. The children play, munch, and drink, then throw the six-pack holder and candy bar wrappers on the ground. Later, when it rains, the candy wrappers and the six-pack holder wash away. After the rain, the sun comes out and everything looks sparkling clean.

Can you figure out what’s fishy about this story? Can you see any pollutants in the river?

. . . And Down a “Human River”
Now you know—pollution comes in different forms and from different places, but it could all end up down a drain, where it threatens your river. Be part of a “human river” and find out what happens if you don’t protect rivers!

Take Action—Geography Action!
If movie reviewers like a movie, they “give it a plug”—good publicity. It’s your turn to give rivers a plug! Write a poem or draw a river that shows how important it is to keep rivers healthy. (National Geographic Society)

Help keep rivers from getting polluted—stencil “Do Not Dump” signs on storm drains! (National Geographic Society)

Make a wetland, then invite other students in the school to visit your classroom and learn about the important role wetlands play in filtering river pollutants. (National Geographic Society)

Make antipollution posters to celebrate rivers during Geography Awareness Week (November 11-17, 2001). Cut pictures of items that can pollute a river out of magazines. Mount your pictures on a poster and draw the international symbol for “no” over each picture. Then hang your posters in the school hallway.

Whatever you decide to do, tell us about it! Fill out the Geography Action! survey, and learn what other students are doing for rivers!

“Andrew and Emily” story and illustration adapted from the 1992 Geography Awareness Week teacher’s handbook. ©1992 National Geographic Society. “Andrew and Emily” illustration by Barbara L. Gibson. “Human River” adapted from an activity by Joan Stone, Teacher-Consultant.

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Photographs (left to right): Lower Monumental Dam, Snake River, Washington, by Richard S. Durrance; Volga River, Kamyshin, Russia, by James P. Blair; Sierra Newt, California, copyright Corbis

© 2001 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.