Irrigation

ISSUES

Heading Towards a Water Shortage

Irrigation consists of artificially bringing water to cultivated crops to increase their yield. Irrigation can compensate for a lack of rainwater, but necessitates the removal of groundwater, and water from rivers and lakes. Not all arable land is irrigated: only 17% was in 2003, but this land could provide up to 40% of the world’s harvest. (1)
Water as a Resource
Water is a renewable resource: the amount present on Earth is virtually constant. At any one time, water is flowing in the ocean, evaporating, and falling again over the earth. However, certain water stores, in particular aquifers (beds of water-bearing rock), take somewhere on a timescale of thousands of years to replenish. On a human timescale, they could therefore be depleted before they can regenerate, and come to be missed.
Furthermore, only 2.5% of total water reserves are fresh water. Fresh water from watercourses and subterranean groundwater for...

NEWS

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DEBATES

The Sino-Indian Water Divide

Brahma Chellaney

As its power grows, China seems determined to choke off Asian competitors, a tendency reflected in its hardening stance toward...

Will the Jordan River Keep on Flowing?

The River Jordan has flowed freely for thousands of years,...

Climate Change and Water Security

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently...

FOCUS

Traditional knowledge

The very existence of native people depends on them adapting to their natural environment. Today, these ancestral practices are being brought back so that we can adapt better to climate...

VIDEOS

23/12/2009	Soumana Doumbia, geographer, tells us about the difficulties that farmers...	04/05/2009	L’eau demeure une ressource rare. Le WWF propose un récapitulatif des...
28/11/2008	A Pucarumi, dans le sud du Pérou, un berger témoigne du rôle vital des...

GREEN TIPS

In Albi, light is cheap

The town of Albi has installed which are more eco-friendly. These produce good quality white light which...

INDICATORS

Arable land
Desertification risks
Water consumption

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