Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists. Populations outrunning water supplies Grain being picked in a watered field in Sudan. Lack of water has been tied directly to food insecurity. Water tables are falling on every continent and major rivers are being drained dry before they reach the sea, according to a report by the Worldwatch Institute that draws a direct link between water availability, population growth and food security. The book was funded by the Wallace Genetic Foundation and the Pew Fellows Program of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Problems associated with irrigated farming include water-logging, salting and silting.
The International Water Management Institute estimates that India's grain harvest could be reduced by up to one fourth as a result of aquifer depletion. The country's population reached 1 billion in August and is expected to add an additional 18 million people a year for the foreseeable future. Texas has lost irrigated land at roughly one percent a year since 1980. Water tables are falling in China almost everywhere that the land is flat. China's population is also estimated at 1 billion.