Have you ever heard about Trash Rivers?

           This month, I was not able to do any activities due to my mid-term exam, and preparing term for both AP and SAT. So I decided to talk about a striking experience that I still remember from a volunteer trip a few months ago (my profile picture is also from this trip). As a precaution, I hope the ambassadors of Cambodia do not take any offence.

           The place was Cambodia, at the Mekong River. I did hear rumors of how filthy it would be but what I saw was something more than I thought of. If you look at the picture, this would be the picture of the river when it relatively clean. If this is the condition of the river when it is clean, imagine what it would be like after it rained, turning up all the mud and trash in the river.

           After coming back to Korea, I did some background research and tried to find out why it was so filthy. I found out that the river, being the 12^th longest river in the world, flows through quite a lot of countries before it arrives at Cambodia and still goes through Vietnam after it passes Cambodia. It starts Tibetan Plateau and cuts through China until it arrives at the border of China, Myanmar, and Laos. It follows the border of Myanmar and Laos until these two borders meet the boundary lines of Thailand. It then goes along between Thailand and Laos until it finally meets Cambodia. After that, it runs through Cambodia, then goes through Vietnam, and at the end gets dumped in the sea.

           As you can see, the path is very long until it reaches Cambodia?s part of the Mekong River. In that process, The previous countries use up the river for their own good such as dumping industrial waste, household trash, agricultural waste, etc. That?s why countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam experience the worst of the result: all the floating trash right in front of their houses (they built floating houses) not able to drink the water right in front of them when there are people sick because they do not have access to safe water.

           After seeing this with my own eyes, I decided I should do something to help places like this. While I was there, I had some interviews with the local denizens and asked them what kind of water they used most and least. I found out that the river is already too filthy to even think about drinking it. So I decided to devise a way for them to gain safe water apart from the river. Also, I want to visit the Mekong River in the part of Vietnam someday and see if it worse than Cambodia, or if it is cleaner due to the submerging of the trash.