Where is the river ind. Major rivers that are gradually disappearing

To the north of the Himalayas is the Tibetan Plateau. On the the globe it is the highest. It is here that many of the great rivers of Asia originate. One of them is the Indus River. Its source is located very close to the high-altitude lake Manasarovar, located at an altitude of 4557 meters above sea level. To the north of the lake rise the peaks of the Kailash range. From one of them, called Garing-boche, numerous streams flow down. A huge ice cap gives them life. It lies at an altitude of 5250 meters above sea level. This is the source of one of the greatest rivers in South Asia.

The total length of the Indus River from source to mouth is 3180 km. The water flow enters Arabian Sea and flows through countries such as China, India and Pakistan. At the beginning of his long way fast waters flow in a northwestern direction through the Karakorum mountain system. It is almost a thousand kilometers through deep gorges and tectonic depressions. The river is originally called Sindhu, which means "father of rivers" in Pashto. Near the highland village of Langmar, the river Gar-Dzangbo flows into Sindhu, and the combined stream is already called Indus right up to the mouth.

From the mountains, the river enters the valley and receives the waters of the Zanskar River. Then it disappears again among the gorges in the very north of India. In these harsh border regions, the river flow continues to move northwest. But now the mountain peak Haramosh blocks his path, and the Indus turns to the southwest. In this direction, the river flow flows up to the mouth.

All this time, the river is fed by glaciers flowing down from mountain peaks. Therefore, a full-flowing stream flows into Pakistan with a crystal clear clean water, but with a high concentration of precipitation. This area is hilly. It is the capital of Pakistan, the city of Islamabad. It is 50 km away from the river. At this point, the so-called Tarbela dam blocks the water flow. It is considered one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the country. The dam is 143 meters high and 2.7 km long.

Behind the reservoir, the Kabul River flows into the river. It flows through the capital of Afghanistan, and is 460 km long. Having taken in a high-water tributary, the Indus River leaves behind the gorges and spurs and enters the flat terrain. This is a vast territory, called the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Its length reaches 3 thousand km, and its width is 300-350 km. It is considered the center of the most ancient world civilization, in no way inferior to Mesopotamia.

The water flow ends up in the Punjab region. Here it splits into arms and ducts. Behind the administrative center of Dera Gazi Khan, the Panjnad flows into the river. Its length reaches 1536 km. After that, the Indus floods up to 2 km wide. In the lower reaches, the river crosses the Thar Desert.

Indus River on the map

Delta begins at the city of Hyderabad, which is 150 km away from the Arabian Sea. Her total area is 30 thousand square meters. km. And the length of the coastline from end to end is 250 km. The delta consists of separate branches and ducts. In each flood, their location and number changes. At high tide, there is tidal wave. It is characterized by a large mass of water moving upstream. The wave height reaches up to 6 meters. A similar phenomenon is also seen in the Amazon River.

The water flow is fed mainly by the snows and glaciers of the Himalayas, Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Kashmir. Drainage is subject to seasonal changes. It drops significantly in winter period and increases during the monsoon season from July to September. There has also been a steady westward diversion since prehistoric times. This happens due to earthquakes.

The water stream does not freeze along its entire length. Although in the upper reaches the temperature drops below zero degrees in winter. But in summer it is hot, and the thermometer mark goes beyond 30 degrees Celsius. The river basin is 1 million 165 thousand square meters. km. The Indus River is the 22nd longest in the world., losing Yukon (a river in Alaska) 5 km.

This river system has a huge economic importance for Pakistan. It is the basis of agriculture, taking into account the fact that in southern regions The country receives very little rainfall. Irrigation canals in these places were built thousands of years ago. More modern irrigation systems were commissioned by the East India Company as early as 1850. Along with the new ones, the old irrigation systems were also restored. At the time, these were the most sophisticated irrigation facilities in the world.

Today, dams, dikes and canals are the basis for the production of crops such as cotton, sugar cane and wheat in Pakistan. Hydroelectric power plants also generate electricity for heavy industry and settlements. The country owes all this to the mighty river, which originates in the Tibetan Plateau.

Stanislav Lopatin

The Indus Valley is a place where more than five thousand years ago a special civilization arose, which is called the Indus (Harappan) civilization.

Story

For modern mankind, it was discovered only in the 20th century, when, after 1920, systematic excavations of the cities of the Indus civilization began. It is obvious that the flowering of this agrarian civilization was closely connected with the Indus River, in the basin of which high-yielding irrigated agriculture was possible.
The level of progress in the cities created by this civilization was so high that at first scientists suggested that this culture was not of local origin, but was brought, say, by immigrants from Mesopotamia. However, further excavations have confirmed the continuity between the earlier settlements and the Indus civilization.
The archaeological complexes of Harappa and in the Indus Valley are today the most famous in the world, although several hundred settlements of this culture, which is sometimes also called Harappan, have already been found.
The cities of the Indus civilization were carefully planned and clearly built according to uniform standards. Wheeled carts drove along straight streets, up to ten meters wide, the city was divided into separate rectangular quarters. The bricks used for building by the ancient inhabitants of the Indus Valley were so well made that in late XIX in. the workers simply dismantled the ruins of Harappa for the construction of the railway.
Many houses of the Indus civilization were built with rooms for ablution in special septic tanks. The sewerage system was carefully planned and bricked out. Large pools with waterproof walls are also a sign of the Indus civilization. Water clearly played in the formation of this culture in the pool great river decisive role.
Excavations have shown that wheat, millet, barley, cotton were grown here, bulls and buffalo were used as draft animals, and poultry was also bred. The craftsmen of the Indian cities made fine ceramics and fabrics, as well as jewelry made of bronze, gold, silver, carnelian, agate, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. Numerous finds show that many products were exported. By the way, the system of standards of the Indus civilization is extremely convenient - a single system of weights was used, bricks were of the same size, trade clay seals were of the same type, craft tools of the same type. Stone rectangular seals, characteristic of the Indus civilization, are found far from the Indus valley, which indicates active trade.
The writing of the Indus civilization has not yet been deciphered - it is not possible to find bilingual texts.
Work on deciphering the script continues. Perhaps, when this can be done, the veil of the mystery of the decline of the Indus civilization will be lifted. It ceased to exist by the end of the 18th century. BC e., although there was no sudden catastrophe. The version that the Indus civilization was destroyed by the Aryans who came to the Indus Valley just at that time is not confirmed by the materials of the excavations. No traces of mass graves and brutal battles have been found. It is possible that it was the Indus that was the reason for the decline of one of the richest cultures, one of the hypotheses of its disappearance is the change in the riverbed.

After the division of the formerly unified territory of British India in 1947, some hydrotechnical facilities, providing water channels in Pakistan, ended up in India. Literally immediately in 1948, the Indian administrator cut off the water supply of many canals irrigating fields in the Pakistani province. Indian authorities later cited bureaucratic difficulties.
In 1952, India and Pakistan, unable to reach an agreement, accepted an offer to mediate World Bank negotiations. Long negotiations ended in September 1960 with the signing of the Indus Water Treaty by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani President Ayub Khan.
Under this agreement, India received the right to control the flow of the "eastern" rivers of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, and Pakistan over the water of the "western" - Indus, Jelama and Chenab. India retained the right to use water " western rivers» for domestic use, that is, for drinking, navigation, agriculture and electricity generation, provided that it does not accumulate water in too large quantities.
The treaty provided Pakistan with 80% of the water in the Indus River system and was not protested by Pakistan until India started building hydroelectric dams.
In 2005, there was a break in the "water truce". The Government of India has announced its intention to build a hydropower plant on the Chenab River (a tributary of the Sutlej). The case was transferred to the World Bank, as a result, independent experts rejected some of the accusations, but some were recognized as fair.
India is now accused in Pakistan of stealing millions of cubic meters of water to generate electricity from the Chenab River, where the huge Baglihar Dam was built. In 2009, residents of local villages complained to the government of Pakistan that the water level had dropped by more than 10m.
What worries Pakistan the most is a repeat of the 1948 situation. Given that the country has the world's largest continental irrigation system, agriculture accounts for a quarter of Pakistan's GDP and employs half of the country's working population, the fears become understandable. In May 2010, Pakistan filed a lawsuit with the International court of Arbitration to stop the construction of the Indian hydroelectric complex.
India, on the other hand, really needs to develop hydropower, since the lack of electricity creates considerable difficulties for the growth of industry, and 40% of the population does not have access to electricity at all.
Pakistan's accusations that India can manipulate water flow by reducing it, for example, during the planting season, are dismissed. Theoretically, after the implementation of the entire construction complex, India will be able to contain about a month's volume of river flow during the critical dry season. And of course, this will be enough to destroy the crops in Pakistan.
The "water" conflict is unlikely to be resolved in the near future - all the circumstances of the case speak against this. In addition, since the middle of the XX century. in India quantity fresh water per capita decreased from 5 thousand cubic meters to 1.8 thousand, and in Pakistan - from 5.6 thousand cubic meters to 1.2 thousand. Considering that the indicator of 1 thousand cubic meters is considered critical, the struggle for control over the Indus between the two nuclear states in the future threatens with unpredictable consequences.

general information

Countries through which the river flows: China, India, Pakistan.

The most important airports: international Airport Benazir Bhutto International Airport (Islamabad), Faisalabad International Airport, Karachi Jinnah International Airport, Allam Iqbal International Airport (Lahore).

Main port: Karachi.

Major lakes of the basin: Manasarovar, Langak (China), Kinjhar Lake, Rawal, Tarbela, Manchar (Pakistan).

Numbers

Population: about 180,000,000 people

River length: 3180 km.

Delta area: 30,000 km2.
Water consumption: 6600 m 3 / s.

Economy

Climate and weather

July average temperature:+30°С... +36°С, January: +12°С... +20°С (in the northern part of the basin it drops below 0 in winter).

Average annual rainfall : 125-500 mm.

Attractions

Curious facts

indus(སེང་ གེ ། གཙང་ པོ པོ པོ ê βngular zangbo, 印度河 zh yìndù hé, सिन्धु नदी नदी नदी hi, دریاۓ oint sindh, اواivil PS Abāsin, oint sd sindhu, دریائے &ھھ ur. territory of China in the Himalayas and flows for the most part across northwestern India and Pakistan. The source is located in the Tibetan Plateau, the mouth is in the north of the Arabian Sea, not far from the city of Karachi. The length of the Indus is 3180 km, the basin area is 960,800 km² (980 thousand km² in TSB).

Names: सिन्धु sa (); سندھ ur ( Sindh); سندھو sd ( Sindhu); سندھpa(" ); Hindu ae; ps ( Abba Sin"father of rivers"); هند fa ("Hind"); Sengge Chu bo ("Lion River"); ; Ινδός el (Indos).

Indus (Sindhu) is one of the main rivers of the Vedic Semirechye.

Indus in art

The Vedas (Rigveda) admire the Indus, the cradle of India. Sindhu (Indus) is one of the main rivers of Semirechye (Saptasindhu). “The Indus transcends all current streams… Its roar rises from the earth to the sky, it creates infinite power in flashes of light… Exactly as cows with milk lead calves, so other rivers thunder in the Indus. As a warrior king leads warriors, so the Indus leads other rivers ... Rich in good horses, rich in gold, noble in appearance, rich in abundance of health. In this hymn, the Indus is the "male" river. In other hymns, the celestial wise men descend from heaven into the Indus. The Vedas refer to the Ganges twice, and to the Indus more than 30 times. Indus gave its name to Sindh province of Pakistan.

Ecology

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the Indus has undergone tremendous changes, which negatively affected almost all the wildlife related to the river. The construction of dams and dams has led to a record decrease in water flow in the Indus Delta and the volume of incoming sediments. During the second half of the twentieth century, consumption fell by an order of magnitude. The navigable routes from the delta deep into the river have significantly decreased. Fresh water practically does not reach the delta, only occasionally during the monsoon period. The size of the delta, due to the fact that sediments have practically ceased to flow, has significantly decreased (from approximately 6200 to 1200 square kilometers). Admission observed sea ​​water into the river salty water runs up to 75 kilometers upstream. The lack of fresh water and the influx of sea water led to the destruction of large areas of agricultural land, several settlements near the coast ceased to exist, several hundred thousand people were forced to change their place of residence. The strong wave energy inherent in the waters of the Indus Delta, coupled with the cessation of sedimentation, causes desertification and deformation of the coastline.

Lake Manchar plays a significant ecological role in the functioning of the Indus River Basin.

Geology

The appearance of the river is attributed to the period after the collision of the Hindustan plate with Asia (the collision occurred according to various estimates from 55Scotese, Christopher R. (January 2001). "The collision of India and Asia (90 mya - present)". Paleomap Project. Retrieved December 28, 2004. up to 35 million Aitchison, Jonathan C.; Ali, Jason R.; Davis, Aileen M. (2007) "When and where did India and Asia collide?" Journal of Geophysical Research 112 (B05423) Bibcode:2007JGRB. .11205423A doi:10.1029/2006JB004706 years ago in the Eocene epoch Cenozoic era). Thus, the Indus can be considered one of ancient rivers world, it is older than the Himalayas, which reached their final height when the Indus already existed. During the existence of the Indus, significant deformations of the earth's surface occurred, in particular, noticeable uplifts, but they did not entail significant movements of the channel. Research data show that in ancient times the Indus was a drain from, and its Indus occurred in conjunction with the collision of the Hindustan Plate with Asia and the uplift of parts of the Lhasa Plate Geological Society Special Publication Series (Issue 195), Geological Society (London). Contributors P. Peter D. Clift, Geological Society of London. Geological Society.: 2002. ISBN 1862391114, 9781862391116. Total pages: 525. pp. 253,254.

The Indus played an important role in shaping the surface of the region. The stability of its position for several tens of millions of years from the time of the Ypresian stage served to ensure that the waters of the Indus took an active part in erosion processes. Sedimentary rocks from the Himalayas were carried by the waters of the proto-Indus into the Arabian Sea already from the middle of the Eocene, intensifying the erosion of the rising Karakorum and Lhasa Plate. While many rivers of East Asia have been locked up during the period of their history in the process of mountain building, the Indus, flowing along the seam formed during the collision of plates, has shifted only 100 kilometers to the east over millions of years (this was caused by the rise of the Suleiman Mountains and their pressure on indus valley in eastbound). The removal of sedimentary rocks by the Indus also influenced the formation of the Mekran, before the uplift of the Murri Range near the Arabian Basin took place, one of the reasons for which was also the active supply of sediments. In addition to a hundred-kilometer displacement of the Indus channel to the east, there was also a displacement of the river delta in southbound. The reason for this was the natural process of the movement of deltas of water flows into the seas, due to the removal of particles, as well as tectonic compression processes in this place of the sea.

The completion of the uplift of Tibet and the decrease in active sedimentation 8.5 million years ago occurred simultaneously with the emergence of the South Asian monsoons.

Swimming pool

The area of ​​the Indus basin is 970 thousand square kilometers, which makes it the twelfth in the world in this indicator.

The climate of the region is arid and semi-arid. Precipitation is seasonal, in the lower part of the Indus, their magnitude is small, while more than half of the precipitation comes with the Southwest monsoon (between July and September). In the plains, the average annual rainfall is less than 100 mm, but as you move upstream, this figure increases, reaching a value of 500 mm in Lahore and 2000 mm in the Himalayas. The arid climate causes strong evaporation from the water surface, especially in the lower Indus, where evaporation can reach 2000 mm per year Large Rivers: Geomorphology and Management. Editor Avijit Gupta. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. ISBN 0470723718, 9780470723715. Total pages: 712, pp. 333-345.

The main feeding regions of the Indus are western Tibet, the Karakorum mountain system and (the suture is the junction of various tectonic parts along the fault). The influence of tributaries from the Hindustan Plate is very insignificant.

Story

In the middle of the III millennium BC. e. One of the oldest civilizations developed in the Indus Valley. Later, the Great Silk Road passed through the Indus Valley and its tributaries.

Economic use

The hydropower potential of the Indus is estimated at 20 million kWh. 14 large dams have been built, including the Sukkur dam. The average sediment runoff is about 450 million tons per year.

Usage problem water resources rivers of the Indus basin has repeatedly caused conflicts between India and Pakistan, as well as between individual states. The Indus Waters Treaty, concluded in 1960, governs the distribution of the waters of the five rivers of the Punjab.

Irrigation

In the lower part of the Indus basin, about 12 million hectares of land are irrigated (mainly in the Punjab and in the delta), less than half of the river flow reaches the mouth. The total length of irrigation canals is approximately 65 thousand km, with the help of irrigation facilities over 1.7 million hectares are irrigated.

Shipping

Navigation along the Indus is usually carried out from the mouth to the city of Deraismailkhan (about 1200 km). Even higher, up to the city of Attock, at the mouth of the Kabul River, small flat-bottomed vessels can rise.

Hydraulic structures

Major dams and dikes on the Indus:

Flora and fauna

Estimates of the Indus Valley from the time of Alexander the Great testify to the dense forests that covered this region in the past. However, these forests are now significantly reduced. Babur, the founder of the Mughal state, in his memoirs, Babur-name wrote about rhinos found on the banks of the river. Intense deforestation and human impact on the ecology of Shivalik has led to a strong deterioration in growing conditions. The Indus Valley is an arid region with little vegetation. Agriculture supported mostly by irrigation.

The Indus basin and the river itself are biologically diverse. The area is home to approximately 25 amphibian species and 147 fish species, of which 22 are found only in the Indus.

mammals

Fish

Fish are represented by families of cyprinids (Indian sabrefish, zebrafish, barbs, marinka, etc.), loaches (bots, etc.), bugariids, catfish, macropods (colises, etc.), snakeheads (snakeheads, etc.) and others Fisheries at Higher Altitudes: Asia, Issue 385 Editor T. Petr. Food & Agriculture Org., 1999. ISBN 9251043094, 9789251043097. Pages: 304, pp. 130-131. Popular gastronomic fish is a fish from the herring family.

The size of fish stocks in the river is quite large, and the cities of Sukkur, Thatta and Kotri are major fishing centers. But the withdrawal of water for irrigation and the construction of dams forced special measures to maintain the number of fish.

Hydrography

Source and upstream

The source of the river is located at an altitude of about 5300 m (5182 m according to the Geoslovar and 5500 m according to Britannica) in the south-west of the Tibetan Plateau, on the northern slope of Mount Garing-boche (Kailash Range), about 40 km north of Lake Manasarovar. Under the name of Sindhu, it flows to the confluence with the Gar Dzangbo River at the village of Largmar, where it receives the name Ind.

For over 1,000 km, the Indus flows northwest through the Karakoram Mountains, following a deep tectonic valley and forming numerous rocky gorges. The Indus crosses the border between the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir at an altitude of 4572 m near the village of Demchok. After a long mountainous section, the river enters the valley, where ancient city Leh is the capital historical area Ladakh. Not far from Leh, the Zanskar River (left) flows into the Indus, after which, near the city of Tingmosgang, the river again goes into the gorge and flows to the border settlement of Batalik.

After crossing the border between the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistani Northern Territories, the Shingo River flows into the Indus. After about 80 km, the Shayok River flows into the Indus on the right. At Skardu (the main city of Baltistan), the Shigar River flows into the Indus on the right, fed, among other things, by the largest glaciers Biafo and Baltoro. The Indus reaches its northernmost point at Haramosh Peak, after which it merges with the Gilgit River (also on the right) at the city of Bunji and turns southwest, breaking through between the spurs of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. From here, the Karakoram Highway runs along the banks of the Indus. Almost immediately after its confluence with the Gilgit, the Indus is replenished by the waters of the Astor River and flows at the foot of the Nanga Parbat mountain, which feeds the river with its glaciers. Then the Indus crosses the border of Kashmir and flows into the territory of Pakistan.

In the middle reaches it crosses hilly lowlands, where the Tarbela dam was built in 1977. After that, the Indus receives a large tributary of Kabul (the height of the confluence is about 610 m), flows through the Kalabagh Gorge between the spurs of the Suleiman Mountains and the Salt Range, and then enters the Indo-Gangetic Plain.

flat area

Merging with the Soan River and entering the plains of the Punjab near the city of Daudkheil, the Indus is divided into several branches and channels. The river and its accompanying canals flow through the cities of Miyanvali and Dera Ismail Khan. Near the village of Kotaddu, the Towns Dam was built. After passing through Dera Gazi Khan, the Indus receives the waters of the largest tributary of the Indus, the Panjnad River, after which the width of the river increases from 400-500 m to 1-2 km. Near the city of Sukkur (the Sindh region), the Nara (Eastern Nara) branch separates from the Indus, but it reaches the sea only in high water, although in ancient times, apparently, it served as the main channel. In the lower reaches, the Indus crosses the western edge of the Thar Desert. After passing through the plain over 1800 km, it flows into the Arabian Sea.

The river carries a large number of sediments, so its channel is elevated above the sandy plain. For a considerable distance, the riverbed is diked to protect the adjacent territories from floods, which sometimes occur. In 1947 and 1958, floods destroyed large areas, the 2010 flood also caused great damage to the country. Sometimes severe floods cause the river to change its course.

Delta

At Hyderabad, located 150 km from the sea, the Indus Delta begins, which has an area of ​​30 thousand km² (the seventh largest in the world) and a coastline of 250 km. The river is divided into 11 main branches, but the total number of channels in the Indus Delta cannot be accurately determined, because each flood changes the entire pattern. During this century, the main channel changed its place many times. At present, the main channel of the river is called Gajamro, flows into the sea at a point with coordinates 24 ° 6 "north latitude and 67 ° 22" east. duty. The coastal strip with a depth of 8 to 30 km is flooded at high tide.

The Indus Delta formed during the Holocene.

List of tributaries

The largest of the tributaries:

Water regime

In the mountainous area, the Indus is fed mainly by melting snow and glaciers, where the flow is about 220 km³ / year, with an average water discharge of about 7000 m³ / s. Consumption is minimal in winter months(December-February), from March to June the water rises. In the lower part of the basin, the river is replenished with water from monsoon rains, which leads to a spring-summer flood (March - September). During this period, the water rises by 10-15 m in the mountains, and 5-7 m in the flat part. During the period of high water (July-September), the riverbed in the floodplain reaches 5-7 km wide (in the area of ​​​​the city of Dera-Ismail-Khan, the width reaches 20-22 km)

Hyderabad's average water flow is 3,850 m³/sec, but in high-water years this figure can reach 30,000 m³/sec. After entering the plain, the Indus loses water through evaporation and seepage. During dry periods, the Indus in the lower reaches may dry up and not reach the Arabian Sea.

There is physiographic and historical evidence that, at least since the Mohenjo-Daro culture, the Indus has changed its course several times below the southern Punjab. In the area of ​​​​the cities of Rohri and Sukkur, the river is sandwiched between limestone cliffs, and to the south the riverbed has moved west, especially its delta. Over the past 7 centuries, in the upper part of Sindh, the Indus has moved 15-30 km to the west.

Climate

With the exception of a mountainous area in Pakistan, the Indus Valley lies in the driest part of the Indian subcontinent. The average annual rainfall along the entire length of the Indus varies from 125 to 500 mm. In addition to the Himalayan glaciers, the Indus is fed by monsoon rains from July to September.

In the northern part of the Indus Basin, temperatures drop below freezing in January and reach 38°C in July. The river does not freeze. One of the hottest places on Earth, the city of Jacobabad is located west of the Indus in upper Sindh - the temperature there rises to 49 ° C.

The Indus originates in the Himalayas, in China, and for the most part flows through the lands of India and Pakistan. The mouth of the river is located in, near the city of Karachi. This river has a length of 3180 km, the area of ​​​​its basin is 960,800 square meters. km.

There is historical and physiographic evidence that the river changed its course several times. Its delta especially moved to the west. In the last seven hundred years, in its upper part, the Indus has moved thirty kilometers to the west.

Climatic conditions

The mountainous section of the river is filled with melting glaciers and falling snow. In the lower part of its basin, the Indus is replenished by the waters of the falling monsoon rains, which provoke and feed the spring-summer flood. At this time, the water level in the mountains rises by ten meters and by seven in the flat part. Once on the plain, the Indus loses its current strength and water due to seepage and evaporation. During particularly dry periods, the river dries up and does not reach the shores of the Arabian Sea.
With the exception of the Pakistani section, the river valley belongs to the driest part of the Indian subcontinent. Average annual rainfall over the entire length water artery ranges from 150 to 500 mm. In the northernmost part of the basin, winter temperatures drop below zero, while summer temperatures rise to 38 °C. This river never freezes.

Industrial and economic importance

The hydropower capacity of the river is measured at 20 million kW. Until now, fourteen dams have been built, the largest of which is Sukkur. The riverbed has been diked to protect against natural floods.
In its lower part, the Indus River irrigates more than 12 million hectares of land, as a result of this economic activity less than half of the river flow reaches the mouth. The total length of irrigation canals is more than 65 thousand kilometers. This river is navigable from the mouth to the city of Deraismailkhan, that is, at a distance of about 1200 km. Only small and flat-bottomed vessels can rise to the mouth of the Kabul River.

These two rivers are in India and are essentially the same twins as the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, and the Yangtze and Yellow River in China. Having great importance for the life of all living things in their valleys, the Indus and the Ganges are deified in India and are revered for the sacred rivers of Hindustan. All this is well justified. The Ganges is the first river in India and one of the deepest rivers in Asia. The area of ​​the Ganges basin is exceptionally favorable for the formation of a powerful river system. The river begins in the highlands of the Himalayas, rich in rainfall and snow, and then goes to the vast lowland, which is also abundantly moistened. The length of the Ganges is 2700 kilometers, and the basin area is 1125 thousand square kilometers. The average flow of the river is five times that of the Yellow River. The Ganges begins with two sources (Bhagirathi and Alaknanda) at an altitude of 4500 meters. It cuts through the northern ridges of the Himalayan mountains with narrow gorges and breaks out onto the plain. There, its course is slow and calm.

From the Himalayas, the Ganges collects many full-flowing tributaries, including its largest tributary, the Dzhankoy River. The Ganges receives much less tributaries from the Deccan plateau. At the confluence with the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges, together with the Brahmaputra, forms a vast delta. This delta begins 500 kilometers from the sea. Within the delta, the lower Ganges splits into many branches. The largest of them are Meghna in the east (the Brahmaputra flows into it) and Hooghly in the west. The distance between them in a straight line is 300 kilometers.
The branches of the Ganges and Brahmaputra change their direction, wandering within the delta plain. Usually these changes occur during severe floods, from which the population of the Ganges basin suffers almost every year.
The Ganges is fed by the melting of snow and ice in the Himalayas and mainly by the summer monsoon rains. Therefore, the water level rises in May, gradually increases and reaches a maximum in July - September due to monsoon rains. During this period, the width and depth of the Ganges in some areas is twice the width and depth after the flood.
Flooding within the delta also occurs due to surge winds from the sea. Such floods are not frequent, but they are especially severe and cause catastrophic disasters.
Under different conditions, the third major river of South Asia, the Indus, formed after the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. The length of the Indus is somewhat greater than the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, but the area of ​​the basin is much inferior. Its length is 3180 kilometers. Like the Brahmaputra, the Indus rises in southern Tibet at an altitude of 5300 meters above sea level. Breaking through the ridges of the Himalayas, the Indus forms a system of deep gorges several tens of kilometers long, with almost steep slopes and a narrow channel in which the river rages, forming rapids and rapids. Having entered the plain, the Indus breaks up into arms, which partially dry up during the dry season. But during the rains, they merge again, reaching a total width of 22 kilometers.
Within the plain, the Indus receives its main tributary, the Pajnad, which is formed from five sources. Therefore, the whole area is called Punjab, which means Five Rivers. The Indus Delta, when it flows into the Arabian Sea, is significantly inferior in area to the deltas of other rivers in South Asia. Earthquakes, which often occur in the Indus basin, sometimes significantly affect the change in the direction of the river. For example, in the middle of the 19th century, as a result of an earthquake in the middle reaches of the Indus, a collapse occurred. He dammed up a large section of the river and turned it into a lake. A few months later, the river broke through the dam and the lake was drained in one day, causing severe flooding.

Like other rivers in Asia, the Indus is fed by the melting of snow and ice in the mountains and by the summer monsoon rains. But the amount of precipitation in the Indus basin is much less than in the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin, and evaporation is much greater. Therefore, the Indus is less full-flowing than these rivers. Between the period of the spring flood associated with the melting of snows and the period of the monsoon flood, there comes a time of significant decline in water and the summer rise is not so great as on the Ganges or the Brahmaputra. Due to the aridity of most of the basin, the importance of the Indus as a source of irrigation increases.

Information

• Length: 3180 km
• Swimming pool: 960,800 km²
• Water consumption: 6600 m³/s