VOLGA RIVER AND CITIES ON IT
About 2,300 miles long, the Volga—sometimes referred to as “Volga-matushka,” or “Mother Volga originating from the Valdai Hills is the longest river in the whole of Russia and the European continent as well.
It is also the biggest by water flow, arcing from northwest of Moscow around and down to the Caspian Sea.
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It is also the principal waterway of Russia.
The Moscow Canal, the Volga–Don Canal, and the Volga–Baltic Waterway form navigable waterways connecting Moscow to the White Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, all of which draw on Volga.
The Volga comprises of dams, reservoirs and hydroelectric facilities that operate on the river and they are located at the cities of Uglich, Rybinsk, Gorodets, Nizhniy Novgorod, Cheboksary, Samara, Saratov and Volgograd along with Nizhniy Novgorod.
Some 60 million people—about 40% of Russia’s population—live in Volga basin. Moscow, with its 12 million people, gets most of its drinking water from the Volga via the Moscow Canal.
As an artery of commerce, a source of energy and drinking water, and a conveyor of history, the Volga touches nearly every aspect of life in Russia.
The history of the Big Volga project like Volgograd is, in a sense, the history of Soviet industrialization. It is also a history of rivalry with the US, which for decades raced the Soviets to build bigger, more impressive dams.
As result of following western model of growth, imitating the Americans, the river has become polluted, silted up, and overwhelmed by invasive species. Water flows at a tenth of the speed it did before the dams were constructed, according to estimates by researchers at the Institute of Ecology of the Volga River Basin, in the central Russian port city of Togliatti. Widespread toxic algal blooms are now common. It is not an exaggeration to say that Russia’s mother river is broken.
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The Soviets turned the Volga River into a machine. Then the machine broke. Too many dams and water overuse have made Volga, Russia’s most important river dysfunctional. The river is almost dead.
QUESTION
Consider the following statements on Volga
1. Matushka
2. Maximum number of dams
3. Heavy silting and pollution
4. Volga drains into Aral Sea
The correct statements are
(a). 1 and 2
(b). 2 and 3
(c). 3 and 4
(d). 1,2 and 3
Correct Answer : (d) 1, 2 and 3**
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