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I
n 1970, farmers in rural Deaf Smith County in
the Texas panhandle encountered a small but again, for example, farmers in many parts of the
definite sign that local agriculture was seriously world could find it too expensive to irrigate.
out of balance. An irrigation well that had been Groundwater overpumping may now be the single
drilled in 1936 went dry. After more than 30 biggest threat to food production.
years of heavy pumping, the water table had dropped Our irrigation base is remarkably young: 60 per-
24 meters. Soon other wells began to dry up too. cent of it is less than 50 years old. Yet a number of
Water tables were falling across a wide area of the threats to its continued productivity are already
Texas High Plains, and when energy prices shot up in apparent. Along with groundwater depletion, there is
the 1970s, farmers were forced to close down thou- the buildup of salts in the soil, the silting up of reser-
sands of wells because they could no longer afford to voirs and canals, mounting competition for water
pump from such depths. between cities and farms and between countries shar-
During the last three decades, the depletion of ing rivers, rapid population growth in regions that are
underground water reserves, known as aquifers, has already water-stressed—and on top of all that, the
spread from isolated pockets of the agricultural land- uncertainties of climate change. Any one of these
scape to large portions of the world’s irrigated land. threats could seriously compromise agriculture’s pro-
Many farmers are now pumping groundwater faster ductivity. But these stresses are evolving simultane-
than nature is replenishing it, causing a steady drop ously—making it increasingly likely that cracks will
in water tables. Just as a bank account dwindles if appear in our agricultural foundation.
withdrawals routinely exceed deposits, so will an Few governments are taking adequate steps to
underground water reserve decline if pumping address any of these threats and, hidden below the
exceeds recharge. Groundwater overdrafting is now surface, groundwater depletion often gets the least
widespread in the crop-producing regions of central attention of all. Yet this hydrologic equivalent of
and northern China, northwest and southern India, deficit financing cannot continue indefinitely.
parts of Pakistan, much of the western United States, Groundwater withdrawals will eventually come back
North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian into balance with replenishment—the only question
Peninsula. is whether they do so in a planned and coordinated
Many cities are overexploiting groundwater as way that maintains food supplies, or in a chaotic and
well. Portions of Bangkok and Mexico City are actu- unexpected way that reduces food production, wors-
ally sinking as geologic formations compact after the ens poverty, and disrupts regional economies.
water is removed. Albuquerque, Phoenix, and It is true that there are enormous inefficiencies
Tucson are among the larger U.S. cities that are elsewhere in the agricultural sector—and tackling
overdrafting their aquifers. these could take some of the pressure off aquifers. A
Globally, however, it is in agriculture where the shift in diets, for example, could conserve large
greatest social risks lie. Irrigated land is dispropor- amounts of irrigation water. The typical U.S. diet,
tionately important to world food production. Some with its high share of animal products, requires twice
40 percent of the global harvest comes from the 17 as much water to produce as the nutritious but less
percent of cropland that is irrigated. Because of lim- meat-intensive diets common in some Asian and
ited opportunities for expanding rainfed production, European nations. If U.S. consumers moved down
we are betting on that share to increase markedly in the food chain, the same volume of water could pro-
the decades ahead, in order to feed the world’s grow- duce enough food for two people instead of one,
ing population. As irrigation goes deeper and deeper leaving more water in rivers and aquifers. But given
into hydrologic debt, the possibilities for serious dis- the rates of groundwater depletion, there is no longer
✦
Run Dry
any reasonable alternative to tackling the problem ply, and flood control picked up pace, a quiet revolu-
directly. Aquifer management will be an essential part tion in water use unfolded during this period. Rural
of any strategy for living within the limits imposed by electrification, the spread of diesel pumps, and new
a finite supply of fresh water. well-drilling technologies allowed farmers to sink
millions of wells into the aquifers beneath their land.
The Groundwater Revolution For the first time in human history, farmers began to
tap groundwater on a large scale.
During the first century of the modern irrigation Aquifers are in many ways an ideal source of
age—roughly from 1850 to 1950—efforts to devel- water. Farmers can pump groundwater whenever
op water supplies focused mainly on rivers. they need it, and that kind of availability typi-
Government agencies and private investors cally pays off in higher crop yields.
constructed dams to capture river water Compare this with the standard
and canals to deliver that water to scenario for irrigating with
cities and farms. By the middle of river water: river flow is
this century, engineers had erratic, so a reservoir is
built impressive irrigation usually required to
schemes in China, India, store flood water for
Pakistan, and the United use in the dry season.
States, and these nations And reservoirs—
became the world’s top especially arid-land
four irrigators. The reservoirs such as
Indus River system in Lake Nassar behind
South Asia, the Egypt’s High
Yellow and Yangtze Aswan Dam—can
Rivers in China, and lose 10 percent or
the Colorado and more of their water
Sacramento-San to evaporation. In
Joaquin river sys- addition, the large
tems of the western canal networks
United States were that move water
each irrigating siz- out of reservoirs
able areas by 1950. are often unreli-
The global irriga- able—they may
tion base then stood not deliver
at 100 million enough water
hectares, up from 40 when farmers
million in 1900. actually need
Between 1950 and it. Aquifers, on
1995, world irrigated area the other hand,
increased to more than 250 mil- Ancient Romans made this water-carrying pipe have a fairly slow and
lion hectares. Even as the con- with cement and crushed rock. Courtesy steady flow that is usually
struction of large dams for George E. Bartuska, Winter Park, Florida. available year-round and
hydroelectric power, water sup- they don’t lose water to
✦
mid-1980s, but the Saudis are still racking up a water pipelines have no air vents.
deficit on the order of 6 bcm a year. From the fields of North Africa to those of north-
Africa’s northern tier of countries—from Egypt ern China, the story is essentially the same: many of
to Morocco—also relies heavily on fossil aquifers, the world’s most important grainlands are consum-
with estimated depletion running at 10 bcm a year. ing groundwater at unsustainable rates. Collectively,
Nearly 40 percent of this depletion occurs in Libya, annual water depletion in India, China, the United
which is now pursuing a massive water scheme rivaled States, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula adds
in size and complexity only by China’s diversion of up to some 160 bcm a year—equal to the annual flow
the Yangtze River. Known as the Great Man-Made of two Nile Rivers. (See table at left.) Factoring in
River Project, the $25 billion scheme pumps water Australia, Pakistan, and other areas for which this
from desert aquifers in the south and transfers it author did not have comparable data would likely
1,500 kilometers north through some 4,000 kilome- raise this figure by an additional 10 to 25 percent.
ters of concrete pipe. The vast majority of this overpumped groundwa-
The brainchild of Libyan leader Muammar ter is used to irrigate grain, the staple of the human
Qaddafi, the artificial river was christened with great diet. Since it takes about 1,000 tons of water to pro-
pomp and ceremony in late August 1991. As of early duce one ton of grain (and a cubic meter of water
1998, it was delivering 146 million cubic meters a weighs one metric ton), some 180 million tons of
year to the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. If all stages grain—roughly 10 percent of the global harvest—is
are completed, the scheme will eventually transfer up being produced by depleting water supplies. This
to 2.2 bcm a year, with 80 percent of it destined for simple math raises a very unsettling question: If so
agriculture. As in Saudi Arabia, however, the green- much of irrigated agriculture is operating under
ing of the desert will be short-lived: some water engi- water deficits now, where are farmers going to find
neers say the wells may dry up in 40 to 60 years. the additional water that will be needed to feed the
Some water experts have called the scheme “mad- more than 2 billion people projected to join human-
ness” and a “national fantasy.” Foreign engineers ity’s ranks by 2030?
involved in the project have even questioned
Qaddafi’s real motives. Some have pointed out that Texas Ingenuity
the pipelines are 4 meters in diameter, big enough to
accommodate trucks or troops. Every 85 kilometers The only way to sustain crop production in the
or so, engineers are building huge underground stor- face of dwindling water supplies is to use those sup-
age areas that apparently are more elaborate than plies more efficiently—to get more crop per drop.
needed for holding water. The master pipeline runs Few farmers have a better combination of incentive
through a mountain where Qaddafi is reported to be to conserve and opportunity to innovate than those
building a biological and chemical weapons plant. in northwest Texas. As the Ogallala shrinks, water
But other engineers have scoffed at the possibility of efficiency is increasingly the ticket to staying in busi-
any military motive, noting, for example, that the ness. And the response of these Texan farmers is
✦