Stanford researchers believe that if properly managed, the world's reservoirs could store more than half of the water needed to irrigate crops without impacting their other uses.
Stanford study suggests reservoirs around the world could store more than 50% of the water needed to irrigate crops without impacting their other usesDams and reservoirs help supply drinking water and hydroelectric power to nations around the world. But that water is also critical to another life and death calculation now, in the future, and our available global food supply.
"So basically, the purpose of the study was to understand how much water storage is required to feed future agriculture, and to produce food from the agriculture that the world urgently needs," Schmitt explained. They focused on what's known as storage fed irrigation, which they estimate could help feed more than a billion people worldwide at maximum capacity. That includes new dams that are proposed for construction in countries that face food insecurity."And having more storage in those basins would be absolutely critical, because it could drive an enormous increase in food production," he added.
But the researchers also acknowledge the significant environmental damage that dams can do to river basins, plus the enormous strain already taxing systems in drought ravaged areas of the West. They recommend expanding alternatives like micro-storage ponds and recharging underground aquifers during storm seasons, even using treated wastewater.
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