1. Amazon River: The amazon river is considered the largest river in the world by volume, its daily freshwater discharge into the Atlantic is enough to supply New York City’s freshwater needs for nine years. The amazon is slightly shorter than the longest river in the world “Nile River”, so it comes the second longest river in the world.
Length: 6,400 kilometers (3,980 miles)
Water Discharge: 219,000,000 liters/second
2. Congo river in Western Central Africa: transports more water per second than any other river on Earth except the Amazon, what you see in the image is the Inga Dam, its not fully functional yet but when its done experts say it might be able to generate over 40,000 megawatts of electricity. Since the river flows near the Equator, the weather is very hot. Much of the land surrounding the river is tropical rain forest and is home to hundreds of kinds of animals such as manatees, water snakes, crocodiles, tortoises, pigs, elephants and there are over 200 species of fish.
Length: 4,700 km (2,922 miles)
Water Discharge: 41,800,000 l/s
3. Nile: The Nile River is known to be the longest river on planet earth, the river has two main streams, the white Nile and blue Nile. White Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, while the blue Nile starts at Lake Tana in Ethiopia flowing into Sudan from the southeast. The river supplies drinking water for most Egyptians and 95 percent of the country’s water for irrigation.
Length: 6,650 km (4,135 miles)
Water Discharge: 5,100,000 l/s
4. Yangtze: This river is located in China, and is known to be longest river in Asia and third worldwide behind the Amazon and Nile. As the Nile is the main source of freshwater for the people in Egypt, the Yangtze is also an an important source of freshwater for hundreds of millions.
Length: 6,300 km (3,917 miles)
Water Discharge: 31,900,000 l/s
5. Mississippi-Missouri: it forms the longest and most important river system in North America with its tributaries Missouri and Jefferson. The river system begins in Montana USA at the Red Rocks River, which quickly turns into the Jefferson River
Length: 6,275 km (3,902 miles)
Water Drainage: 16,200,000 l/s
6. Niger: The mighty Niger River is a source of food, water and drainage for five nations of West Africa. For the more than 20 African tribes who rely on it, the Niger is a vital source of life. For hundreds of years the tribes used the river at various points of its course. Yet it wasn’t until the Nineteenth Century that the River was traced all the way to it’s source. The river is sourced by the glaciers of the Himalayas, the Brahmaputra flows into the Indian Ocean and creates a huge Delta with the Ganges in Bangladesh.
Length: 4,200 km(2,611 miles)
Water Discharge: 9,570,000 l/s
7. Ganges: Its one of the major rivers in India, flowing east through the Gangetic Plain of northern India into Bangladesh. Its considered a holy river by Hindus and worshiped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism.
Length: 2,510 km (1,560 miles)
Water Discharge: 12,037,000 l/s
