The warld’s rivers are at breakin point. Can we save them afore it is owre late?

The names we gie the warld’s biggest rivers shaw fine how we feel aboot them: the great river, the river that swallows aw rivers, Mither Ganga and Auld Faither Thames. They feed and watter us, and mony ither animal species. They cairry oor trade but gie us cauld relief on a het day. They are nerve endins, elders and sources o comfort, but also o awe and respect.

And yet mony o the warld’s rivers are sufferin, hit by a haill wheen o environmental challenges. A new report out the day frae the World Meteorological Organization finds that rivers across the warld experienced ane o the driest years in mair nor three decades durin 2025.

We hae been focused on watter issues for mony years, but wi Our Rivers, a new project that launches this week, the Guardian will spend the neist year takin a closer look at the warld’s rivers, in guid health and bad.

In this week’s newsletter, I wanted tae talk aboot what we will cover – but first, this week’s climate headlines.

Wi Our Rivers, we want tae dig deeper intae the effects o oor chargin climate. Drouth is already hittin river systems sic as the Amazon and La Plata in Latin America, but there are also challenges frae the new timetables o oor meltin glaciers, and shiftin rain patterns. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra in India hae baith suffered frae the changes tae the annual monsoon season.

Even the michty Congo River in Africa, the warld’s deepest river, which crosses the equator twice, has been hit by the climate crisis, dryin up, slawly, for the last few decades, due tae less rain, a weakenin o the Walker circulation and an increase in sea surface temperature in the central eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean.

But we also want tae explore ither human impacts. Maist o oor rivers are noo heavily engineered frae their source tae their ootflow intae the sea. Political battles are bein foucht owre how that watter shud be distributed, baith atween neighbourin states in the case o the Colorado and, in some cases, atween countries, sic as Egypt and Ethiopia, which hae only recently settled a lang diplomatic standoff owre the division o the Nile.

In some cases, sic as the Mississippi River system, oor rivers hae arguably been owre-engineered, wi authorities zigzaggin owre ways tae remedy problems they created; the mooth o the river was dug oot tae improve access but residents are noo strugglin tae cope wi the incursion o the ocean.

We hae put oor rivers under ticht control but noo, in mony places, local authorities are seekin tae free them up again. China has put huge amoonts o money intae rebuildin the Yangtze, and is seein the results: the doublin o fish biomass and reboundin o endangered species shaws that the government measures are startin tae work, accordin tae biologists.

The problem o pollution and sewage is a familiar ane, but does no become less enragin wi familiarity. Owre the years, includin in Down to Earth, we hae reportit on huge amoonts o sewage bein dumpit intae UK rivers and, in some places, local communities are noo steppin in tae try tae tak back control, in a way that central government seems, sae far, unwillin tae dae. But the UK is no the only country that has poisoned its rivers; the Reconquista River in Buenos Aires is Argentina’s second maist contaminatit river. Scientists hae recently creatit an organic solution for the pollution and oor reporters hae gane there this week tae speak tae communities aroond the river aboot the way forward.

Owre the neist year we will explore these stories wi this project, and look at oor sense o ownership o oor rivers, the love and passion that folk feel for them. We always want tae hear frae oor readers across the globe, sae please dae let us ken what ye think by replyin tae this email or gettin in touch on downtoearth@theguardian.com.