Riverless countries are often located in desert regions, where rainfall and water resources are sparse; the area is too small or there is only seasonal water flow.
According to this criterion, some countries and territories can be named such as Comoros, Djibouti, Libya, Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Malta, Monaco, Vatican City…
Countries that are mostly deserts and are located in particularly arid climates often lack rivers or cannot sustain rivers year-round.
In this list, Saudi Arabia is the largest country in terms of area (2.1 million square kilometers). The country is sandy, dry and hot. Rainfall is abundant but is absorbed or evaporated immediately at high temperatures.
Only a few oases appear on the desert dunes. As for the rest, no major rivers or water sources exist here. This causes great difficulties for the Saudi people in life. To overcome the shortage of fresh water, they have to get water from desalination plants or underground reservoirs at a very expensive cost.
Similarly, Libya is the second largest river-free country on the list. Much of the country is made up of the Libyan desert – one of the driest places on Earth. Rainfall here is extremely rare and there are no rivers. However, groundwater still exists and provides fresh water for 6.7 million people.
Photo: CNN.
Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen also have arid or desert climates. Djibouti has small creeks but only appear in the rainy season.
Islands and Archipelago
Some islands are derived from hard, porous volcanic rock or are too small for a river to flow through. For example, the island nation of Comoros has a total area of about 2,000 square kilometers – too small to create a large stream of water.
Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, Malta in the Mediterranean Sea, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tonga, Tuvalu… are all island nations or part of an archipelago in Oceania.
The terrain here makes even when it rains, the rivers cannot sustain. Precipitation seeps into the ground rather than forming permanent river channels.
Due to climate change and sea level rise, Bahrain has to resort to desalination of groundwater, seawater and wastewater for life use.
Photo: Joali Maldives.
Area is too small
Vatican City and Monaco are the two smallest countries in the world, respectively.
Vatican City is an independent country located in the heart of Rome, the capital of Italy. This is where the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church is located. This country is the smallest in the world both in size and population. Inside Vatican City there are no rivers or streams.
Photo: History of Yesterday.
Similarly, Monaco is also a city-state, both small and bordered by France on three sides and the Mediterranean Sea on four sides. The city’s location and structure make it devoid of any natural rivers.
@ Zing News
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Source: Vietnam Insider