page_title: Environmental impact of irrigation
section_title: Affected downstream water users
hierarchical_section_title: Environmental impact of irrigation / Adverse impacts / Affected downstream water users
caption_attribution_description: English: Barrage de Manantali, Mali
context_page_description: The environmental impacts of irrigation relate to the changes in quantity and quality of soil and water as a result of irrigation and the effects on natural and social conditions in river basins and downstream of an irrigation scheme. The impacts stem from the altered hydrological conditions caused by the installation and operation of the irrigation scheme.
context_section_description: Downstream water users often have no legal water rights and may fall victim of the development of irrigation.
  Pastoralists and nomadic tribes may find their land and water resources blocked by new irrigation developments without having a legal recourse.
  Flood-recession cropping may be seriously affected by the upstream interception of river water for irrigation purposes.
  In Baluchistan, Pakistan, the development of new small-scale irrigation projects depleted the water resources of nomadic tribes traveling annually between Baluchistan and Gujarat or Rajasthan, India
  After the closure of the Kainji dam, Nigeria, 50 to 70 per cent of the downstream area of flood-recession cropping was lost
caption: Lake Manantali, 477 km2, displaced 12,000 people.
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