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Hello dearest poison friends! I hope you are all well and staying safe! I was pondering the pollution of our worlds waterways this week and thought we could take on the discussion of some toxic and polluted (sometimes deadly) rivers. Obviously, I cannot speak on every single river that could qualify for these titles in one episode, so if you like this topic then we can do more in a future episode.

Today however we are visiting West Java, Indonesia, where the Citarum River supplies water for drinking, bathing, cleaning, and irrigation for crops for millions of people. There also happen to be around 2,000 industries on its banks dumping waste such as heavy metals and toxic byproducts into the water. Solid waste such as plastic, diapers, and other household trash is also dumped in and along the river by residents of the capital city of Bandung and many villages living near its waters. In some areas, you cannot even see the surface of the water and dead fish and other animals float alongside the rubbish. This along with livestock waste and human sewage has made the river dangerous to those living near it and using it on a daily basis.

We also discuss the Rio Tinto in Spain, where the water runs orange-red to blood red in color due to over 5,000 years of mining in the area. The water is acidic and filled with heavy metals and other mining byproducts. Oh, and we have to discuss the company that now operates the mine, conveniently called the Rio Tinto Company, and their many shady dealings all over the world.

The Ganges is well known for a few things: it is a holy site for Hindus and it is heavily polluted with untreated sewage, human remains, industrial waste, and agricultural run-off. The water quality has been so bad that the incidence for illness after getting into the water is over 65%. Even, so, many Hindu pilgrims come to bathe ritually in this river and to dispose of human ashes as it is considered a place where sins are forgiven.

I had to put at least one US river on here (because there are a lot of polluted rivers here as well), so I decided to go with the Ohio River (a hard decision as I was also thinking of the Mississippi and the Hudson as well). Most of the pollution here is caused by past industrial waste (including PFAs, dioxin, benzene, etc) and agricultural run-off.

Oh and as a bonus, we head to the jungles of Peru to talk about one of my favorite rivers.

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