Planet Earth - Fresh Water

Fresh water – which contributes to only 3% of all water found on Earth – defines how the life on land is distrubuted. This week’s Planet Earth focuses on this life-giving source, right from where it all starts – rain.
Rain is the source of most fresh water, and with it, the beginnings of a river is formed. A river usually begins as a stream high up in the mountains, and as streams gather, it grows and form a river. And as the river flows, making it journey down the highlands, it will encounter many obstacles. And one of the obstacles that it faces, and definitely the most spectacular, is the waterfall.
At 1000 metres tall, Angel Falls is the highest waterfall found on this planet. As the camera moves from the river to the edge to of the cliff where the river makes a steep descent, one can see the sheer height at which the water falls. Swivelling 360 degrees around Angel Falls, one can see the beauty of the waterfall. The water falls unbroken all the way down, and being so tall, it gets blown away as mist before it hits the river below.
The river has a destructive nature too, and this is vividly demonstrated in Grand Canyon. Carved out by Colorado River, it is the world’s longest canyon system, a 1000 mile scar clearly visible from space.
Animals need freshwater to survive. And to get to the source of fresh water, animals may have to migrate. The wildebeest is one such species. Herds of wildebeest will do the annual migration through the plains to the Mara River for fresh water, and the vast numbers of these animals, when seen from the air, looks like an army of ants moving on the forest floor. Once they reach the river, they will encounter their nemesis, the crocodile. In a sequence, with the speed slowed down (just like the shark sequence in the 1st episode), one can see the crocodile pounce on the wildebeests drinking at the edge of the river with lightning speed, snapping their jaws tight around the animal with a vicelike grip, never letting go till its meal has died.
Where there is a beginning, there will always be an end. For the river, its journey either ends in the sea or lake. The largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Baikal, is home to the Earth’s only freshwater seal. Coupled with the corals that grow in it, Lake Baikal looks more like a sea than fresh water lake. Certainly something that I never knew about till I watched this episode.
This episode is a little bit of a yawn for me. The images are good, but not exactly fantastic and somehow, it sounds more like a documentary made specially for O-levels geography lesson.