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A
center-pivot irrigator has a long horizontal pipe. The inner end pivots,
and the outer end is on wheels. As the irrigator pivots, it creates a
circular field. |
Not
all wet ![]() Of a population of roughly 6.1 billion, more than 1 billion lack access to potable water. The World Health Organization says that at any time, up to half of humanity has one of the six main diseases -- diarrhea, schistosomiasis, or trachoma, or infestation with ascaris, guinea worm, or hookworm -- associated with poor drinking water and inadequate sanitation. About 5 million people die each year from poor drinking water, poor sanitation, or a dirty home environment -- often resulting from water shortage (see "Tackling the Big Three" in the bibliography). Parched
places
China, with
1.26 billion people, is "the one area worrying most people most of the
time," says Marq de Villiers, author of the recently published "Water
" (see bibliography). "They're disgraceful, unusable, industrial sewers," says de Villiers. As farmers go out of business, China will have to import more food. In India, home to 1.002 billion people, key aquifers are being overpumped, and the soil is growing saltier through contamination with irrigation water. Irrigation was a key to increasing food production in India during the green revolution, and as the population surges toward a projected 1.363 billion in 2025, its crops will continue to depend on clean water and clean soil. Israel (population 6.2 million), invented many water-conserving technologies, but water withdrawals still exceed resupply. Overpumping of aquifers along the coast is allowing seawater to pollute drinking water. Like neighboring Jordan, Israel is largely dependent on the Jordan River for fresh water.
Water
Fight "The Nile is one I worry about," says Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project. Egypt, she says, is militarily powerful but vulnerable. "The hydropolitics might favor some military action, because Egypt is so heavily dependent on the Nile, it's already virtually tapping out the supply, and Ethiopia is now getting interested in developing the headwaters." When a World Bank official suggested several years ago that water wars are not far off, he might have had Egypt on his mind -- or Turkey, Syria and Iraq, another trio of Middle-Eastern states that are locked in an uncomfortable embrace over water. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers both rise in Turkey and flow unimpeded to Syria and Iraq, where they provide the bulk of irrigation water needed in the arid climate. Turkey has proposed a series of dams that would reduce river flow. That causes alarm downstream.
A
working river The Colorado may be completely allocated, but the Southwest continues booming. According to one estimate, five of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. states are in the river's drainage. The water the newcomers drink is likely to come from farmers who now receive subsidized river water. The rivers we've mentioned are some of the 200 and 300 major lakes and rivers that transcend national boundaries. The list includes such major items as the Nile, the Amur River between Russia and parched northern China, the Niger in Africa, and the Mekong, Indus and Ganges in Asia. Can't anyone get along? |
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