The human activities of drainage basins and water resources can often lead to conflicts; the types of activities can vary from transport and industry to agriculture and recreation. Because of these conflicts government initiates and planning controls have been emplaced to try and reduce them. The conflicts can occur between different activities or sometimes within the same activity for example a river may be wildlife conservation but a water sport company may want to use it for re-creational use such as water skiing. However human activities can also lead to development on floodplains which increasing the risk of flooding.

The Colorado River has many different stakeholders including: farmers, environmentalists and government agencies therefore this creates many conflicts over land use. Because of these conflicts measures have been taken to prevent floods, generate electricity and provide water for homes and agriculture; however evidence shows that these measures have been inefficient, costly and environmentally damaging and has created more problems. Many environmentalists are arguing that people are using the lakes for recreational purposes, which is threatening lakeshore areas whereas the government agencies are under pressure about changing the water allocations, as groundwater wouldn’t be able to get through limiting supplies to Mexico. However Mexico are using more than their allocation of water, this can cause conflict between US and Mexico and can possibly lead to making other issues more strict. To minimise these conflicts there are several methods that would benefit stakeholders, for example if flood control was emplaced then the Farmers and Mexican citizens would benefit as many could save water from being wasted and ff sediment control and wildlife protection was managed and this would benefit the environmentalists.

Along the River Exe there are numerous different human activities, some include conservation work, industry and recreational use. Along the river there is a sewage treatment in Countess wear, which is used to treat sewage from the surrounding towns in the drainage basin, however this alone as caused many conflicts largely in the residential areas as the sewage plant gave off unacceptable levels of odour, evidently due to the pressure of an increasing population. As a result of this a £6 million investment programme is to help prevent the recurrence of the problems. Towards the estuary of the River Exe it has a strong tourism industry, due to this increase many buildings have been built on floodplains including the Rugby ground, which has made the town more prone to flooding. In addition to this Dawlish Warren is an SSSI site, RSPB and a Ramsar site, therefore holds significance value however the river is also used for boating and fishing therefore can create conflicts. To prevent conflicts many government initiative have been emplaced for example labelling Dawlish Warren as an SSSI site gives it protection against any other land use.

Three Gorges Dam in China is a multi-purpose scheme to offset the massive cost and act as a growth pole away from the developing coastal area. The Dam has multiple purposes, which have had some disadvantages. Power is its main use, holding the largest Hydro station which produced 22,500 MW from 34 generators, creating enough power to power nice provinces and cities, as well as this flood control was another main use. It has created a reservoir for storage and helps protect 15 million people and 1.5 million hectares of farmland. An environmental purpose is that it creates clean renewable energy, and reduced disease in the river, which improves the microclimate, furthermore is it producing a food source and recreational use as has created a new fishing source. Lastly it has also created employment, this is also hoping to set off a multiplier effect so it will generate development in the region. However as there are so many different uses from Three Gorges Dam there are also numerous conflicts: a large environmental one being the wildlife, the Yangtze dolphin has become extinct and fishing and irrigation below the dam has also been affected. Furthermore the development has meant that homes of nearly 1 million people will be flooded and 2.3 million to relocate. The dam was a result of previous problems as it was built to stop flooding and provide power and a constant water supply however evidently this has only leaded to more conflicts.

To conclude it is evident that by looking at Colorado, River Exe and Three Gorges Dam in China, that there are multiple human activities, which lead to conflicts in the river environment. This conflicts mainly consisting on environmental and industrial problems, and evidently government planning and control is the main way to reduce these conflicts.