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The overriding lesson from history is that most irrigation-based civilizations fail. As we enter the third millennium the question arises: Will ours be any different?
For 6,000 years, irrigation has ranked among the most powerful tools of human advancement. The story of settled agriculture, the growth of cities, and the rise of early empires is, to no small degree, a story of controlling water to make the land more prosperous and habitable. Pillar of Sand examines the history, challenges, and pitfalls of irrigated agriculture ― from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to twentieth-century India and the United States. By unmasking the risks faced by irrigation-based societies ― including water scarcity, soil salinization, and conflicts over rivers ― water specialist Sandra Postel connects the lessons of the past with the challenge of making irrigation thrive into the twenty-first century and beyond. Protecting rivers and vital ecosystems as the world aims to feed 8 billion people will require a doubling of water productivity ― getting twice as much benefit from each gallon removed from rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Pillar of Sand points the way toward managing the growing competition for scarce water. And it lays out a strategy for correcting a startling flaw of the modern irrigation age ― its failure to better the lives of the majority of the world's poorest farmers. Illustrations, maps
- Sales Rank: #1440299 in Books
- Color: Multicolor
- Brand: W. W. Norton & Company
- Published on: 1999-07-17
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.30" h x .90" w x 5.50" l, .80 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 320 pages
Features
Review
[A] lucid and authoritative account of humanity's dwindling supply of fresh water. -- E.O. Wilson
About the Author
Sandra Postel lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she directs the Global Water Policy Project. She is a Pew Fellow in Conservation and the Environment and a former vice president for research at the Worldwatch Institute. Her previous book, Last Oasis, now appears in eight languages and was the basis for a PBS television documentary.
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
More crop per drop - fewer drops for all
By Friederike Knabe
Sandra Postel goes well beyond a simple answer to the question posed by her subtitle 'Can the Irrigation Miracle last?' This book is an important resource for anybody trying to understand why water scarcity is such a major and escalating problem at the dawn of this century. Rather than adding to the generalist debate of the economists on water as a commodity or the projection into future problems presented by policy analysts and environmentalists, Postel analyzes particular examples in the past to explain the present and to make recommendations for the future.
Postel opens by reviewing major early societies in history, from Mesopotamia to Babylon, Egypt to ancient China, showing how they developed into major civilizations and why they fell. Yes, fell. Almost all great irrigation-based civilizations (Egypt being a rare exception) collapsed as a result of reallocation and overuse of water resources resulting in salinization, silting, soil degradation, etc.
Have we learned any lessons form the past? Postel argues that it does not seem so. She gives a factual account of a wide range of irrigation systems of the modern era, comparing methodologies and results to those in the past. The development of huge irrigation areas in India (Punjab), China and the US have either already demonstrated a repeat of the old mistakes or will do so in the near future. The groundwater tables are overused without being replenished and aquifers are tapped that have little chance to recover even in the long term. She describes two kinds of water wars: farms versus cities and nature and irrigation versus water scarcity. Water is reallocated and shifted from one use to another, but in some way, we are all living downstream from somebody else. Robbing Peter to pay Paul has its limits: the earth's fresh water resources are finite.
Against the backdrop of increasing water scarcity around the globe, Postel sees as humanity's main challenge the growing of enough food for our future population in a sustainable manner. She describes the pitfalls and the short-term fixes that will result in even greater problems in the future. At the same time, given the substantial increase in crop yield thanks to irrigation, she is realistic in her assessment that agriculture will not be able to do without it. As a result, the objective will have to be to reduce the amount of water we use for agriculture while at the same time producing more crop per drop of water.
Postel has traveled the world to review water systems, big and small, wasteful and efficient. Water needs saving in all areas of use, industrial, private and in agriculture. As agriculture uses by far the most of the global water resources, savings here will have major impacts down the line. She demonstrates on the basis of examples and statistics what is possible and how irrigation in agriculture can become highly effective and water conserving and restraint. She touches on the need to develop 'water-thrifty' plants, but, unfortunately, does not examine the traditional African crop varieties that are known to be drought tolerant and pest resistant. Postel appears to underestimate the importance of crop biodiversity; focusing on 'major' crops like wheat, maize and rice. Traditional farming systems developed in the earth's drylands could teach modern agriculture some important lessons.
Her main conclusion is that water management systems, whether public or private are most successful when they involve the local users and are based on a fair sharing of water resources at the community levels. Water markets and water trading provide options for the future as long as there is a fair and equitable basis for water access and use.
'Pillar of Sand' is clearly presented and easy to read. It will remain an important book in the intensifying debates around water use and mis-use, the increasing tension around demands between agriculture and other uses, and the privatization of water resource systems and the right of human beings to have the essential water they need to live.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A spellbinding book on a juicy subject
By Richard Reese (author of Understanding Sustainability)
Pillar of Sand, by Sandra Postel, is spellbinding book about everyone's favorite subject, irrigation. It discusses the history of irrigation, the numerous serious problems, and the theoretical solutions -- many of which seem to be economically or politically impossible. The general health of irrigated agriculture is worrisome, and so is its future. Feeding ten billion a few decades from now is not going to be a piece of cake.
The benefits of irrigation enabled the development of many civilizations, and the drawbacks of irrigation then destroyed many of them. Today, 17 percent of the world's cropland is irrigated, and it produces 40 percent of our food. This amazing productivity has thrown gasoline on the flames of human reproduction, resulting in explosive population growth, which is never a good thing.
From the very beginning, irrigation seemed to be a fountain of bad karma. From the flooded fields sprouted a bumper crop of mighty emperors, vast palaces, powerful armies, multitudes of slaves, contagious diseases, the loss of freedom, and a pitiable way of life, isolated from wild nature. It was a high-powered form of agriculture, but the magic was mixed with serious defects. Sudden shifts in precipitation or temperature could make an entire civilization vulnerable to famine. The levees, canals, and dams required continuous maintenance by large numbers of hard-working grunts. The infrastructure also provided excellent targets for malevolent invaders, and vengeful enemies.
Over time, irrigation often led to the buildup of salt in the soil -- salinization, which eventually transformed excellent cropland into infertile wasteland. Irrigation was a primary reason why the once lush gardens and orchards of the Cradle of Civilization are now bleak deserts decorated with ancient ruins.
Today, salinization is increasing on 20 percent of irrigated land, causing productivity losses over vast areas. Farmers can slow this destruction by installing a combination of drainage systems and high-efficiency drip irrigation. Unfortunately, this is very expensive, few farmers do it, and the salt continues to accumulate. Postel writes, "Salt remains one of the gravest threats to irrigated agriculture and food security in a world that will be striving to feed 8 to 9 billion people within 50 years."
In the last 200 years, irrigated land has increased 30 times in area. We went on a dam-building binge. In the last 50 years, there has also been an explosion in the number of powerful electric and diesel pumps. They allowed irrigation to expand into many new regions. It is no coincidence that our population also skyrocketed -- more food, more mouths, more problems.
It is no coincidence that we are discovering limits to the supply of fresh water. In many places the water table is falling, because water is being pumped from underground aquifers faster than the ecosystem replaces it. This groundwater mining is a widespread threat in primary food-producing regions of Pakistan, the Middle East, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, northern China, and the western United States.
The problem is well understood, but little effort is being made to address it, because over-pumping generates lots of food and money. Eventually, the wells will go dry, and the golden goose will drop dead. About a tenth of global grain production currently depends on aquifer mining. Postel warns us: "Groundwater over-pumping may now be the single biggest threat to irrigated agriculture, exceeding even the buildup of salts in the soil."
Irrigation is also draining major rivers. In 1997, sections of the Yellow River in China had no flow for 226 days. The dry stretches are often 600 kilometers long, and this takes a big toll on farm production. Other threatened rivers include the Ganges, Indus, Nile, Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Chao Phraya, and Colorado. In these basins, irrigation can no longer be expanded. Growing cities and industries are consuming more and more water too, and they can produce more money with a gallon of water than a farmer can. The proverbial wisdom says that water flows uphill toward money.
Meanwhile, the catastrophic population explosion continues, and another two or three billion are expected to come to dinner in 2050. How will we feed them? Oceanic fisheries are past peak and declining. Ranching isn't able to dramatically expand, neither is rain-fed agriculture. The Green Revolution is over, and there are no new plant-breeding miracles on the horizon.
This leaves irrigated agriculture holding the bag, and it looks like a wobbly bloody boxer after 18 rounds in the ring with a hard-punching opponent. Conflicts over water are on the rise. Numerous aquifers are being depleted. Major rivers are being pumped dry. Salinization continues to destroy more cropland. Climate change could introduce serious additional problems, because our systems are designed to function in the current climate scenario.
The ideal sites for dams are already taken, and an anti-dam movement is growing. Existing dam reservoirs are continuously accumulating silt. On average, the capacity of the world's reservoirs is diminishing by one percent annually. For this reason, all dams have an expiration date, because removing the silt is very expensive. "Like salinization and groundwater depletion, the silting up of reservoirs is a quiet, creeping threat that is building to massive proportions."
Governments are running low on funds for the costly maintenance of water systems, and they are losing interest in building costly new water systems. Many farmers do not feel obligated to obey the water use rules (if any), and enforcement of these rules is minimal. Few farmers can afford to install state-of-the-art irrigation technology. Cheap subsidized water discourages farmers from investing in efficiency improvements. Few if any farmers could afford to pay the full cost for their water. Few are interested in investing big money today to avert a problem that may not become serious until 20 or 30 years from now, especially if they don't own the land, or have big money.
Despite all of these challenges, the strategic global goal is to double the productivity of irrigated lands. In theory, Postel believes that this is possible. In reality, important changes are being made far too slowly. The subtitle of this book is "Can the Irrigation Miracle Last?" From what Postel tells us, I wouldn't bet on it. Was the invention of irrigation really a "miracle?" It unleashed major changes in history, and it's not hard to argue that the costs far exceeded the benefits.
On the last two pages, Postel mentions population. Population growth tends to magnify all problems, while solving none. Therefore, major efforts to further increase food production are not perfumed with the intoxicating aroma of wisdom. As long as we're dreaming for miracles, it would be far more intelligent to sharply reduce population, and thereby diminish many problems simultaneously. But the current generation seems to be firmly against this -- breed now, pay later.
Richard Adrian Reese
Author of What Is Sustainable
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
This book should be required reading for everyone
By DAVID-LEONARD WILLIS
The expansion of irrigation world wide has made a major contribution to increased food production, but for many years the World Watch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute have called attention to the danger of falling water tables and rivers that no longer reach the sea. Although China increased grain production from 90m tons in 1950 to 392 million tons in 1998, this was achieved at the price of rapidly falling water tables with the result that consumption exceeded production in four of the last five years; very soon China will be importing 30 - 50 million tons of grain annually, putting pressure on world grain prices. As wheat requires 1000 tons of water to produce one ton of wheat, the key challenges are: "how can we meet growing human needs for irrigation water without destroying the health of rivers, lakes and other aquatic systems? How can we grow enough food in a sustainable manner?" History tells us that most irrigation-based civilizations fail. The question we must address is "Will our civilization be different?"
Settled agriculture started 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia but around 4,000 BC enterprising Sumerian farmers in the Fertile Crescent - present day Iraq - diverted water from the Euphrates to prevent crops withering before harvest. Irrigation allowed farmers to grow an extra crop and produce surpluses leading to an expanding population and a flourishing civilization but also bringing soil degradation from salt left by evaporation. By the 16th century the Fertile Crescent, was little more than a salty wasteland. 20% of the irrigated land today suffers from salt build up; land lost offsets increased productivity from expanding irrigation. The solution is to use just the amount of water required during the growing season and just enough to leach away salts in the root zone and then to reuse drainage water for crops with a higher salt tolerance such as cotton or tomatoes for canning or paste.
The rise and fall of civilizations closely follows the success and ultimate failure of irrigation. In 1800, global irrigated area was about the size of Austria, while today it is 30 times larger, provides 40% of our food, and is the foundation for feeding 70 million new mouths each year. However, our present day base for food production is highly vulnerable as groundwater is over-pumped and salinization spreads. Increasing land productivity is our main hope at a time when water scarcity and water misuse are the biggest threats to global food production. Food prices are at historically low levels making it difficult to justify new investments in irrigation systems. Many important food-producing regions are sustained by the hydrological equivalent of deficit financing. While water shortages are the main problem, they are compounded by global warming bringing a changing climate, shifting rainfall patterns, and more frequent hurricanes and monsoons. In addition low-lying agricultural land is lost as sea levels rise from thermal expansion of the oceans and melting glaciers and ice caps. Increasing land productivity means extending irrigation to the smallest and poorest farmers, particularly in South Asia and sub-Sahara Africa.
Irrigation will provide the bulk of the additional food needed in the decades ahead, but there is a shift of water away from agriculture to satisfy rapidly growing urban and industrial demands. We have to grow more food with less water; more crop per drop is the agricultural frontier of the 21st century. "There is no obvious, off-the-shelf package available to raise water productivity. This new challenge will require a more diverse and creative mix of strategies that together make agriculture more information-intensive and less resource intensive. - in most cases, by substituting technology and better management for water. But the technologies and strategies described in this chapter inspire hope that we can achieve the doubling of water productivity needed to satisfy the food, water, and environmental needs of the next several decades - if we choose."
Adoption of drip and other microirrigation techniques cut water use and increase crop yields but only 1% of the world's irrigated area uses these methods. If combined with other methods productivity can be greatly improved. "Wuertz pioneered a farming system that combines drip irrigation with minimum tillage of the soil. He buried drip tubing 8-10 inches deep in every crop row, and then practiced multiple cropping of vegetables and field crops (including cotton) along with minimum tillage, leaving the drip irrigation system in place. Studies of Wuertz's low-till drip methods by the University of Arizona showed that the system was able to cut water and energy use by about half and field labor by nearly 60% while increasing lint yield from cotton crops by 13%."
Improved management practices can help farmers reduce water demands while maintaining or increasing crop yields. Weather monitoring and satellite technologies help farmers know when crops need irrigation; pricing water more effectively provides an incentive to farmers to use water more efficiently; improving the ability of crops themselves to use water more efficiently; improving the harvest index to get more edible crop from the same amount of water; breeding or bioengineering plants that photosynthesize in a more water-efficient manner; reuse of municipal waste water for irrigation - these are all part of the solution. Much of the world's grain goes to feed livestock but pork requires twice as much grain per kilo as chicken or farmed fish. Many farmers who are too poor to tap the water a short distance below the surface, a flaw which needs to be remedied by providing them access to affordable irrigation.
Globally the grain harvest is enough but 15% of the world's population cannot afford grain even at today's historically low prices. Very soon food prices will rise, the housewife will complain at the supermarket, and we will see people starving in poor countries. Then people will ask "What went wrong?" The answers are to be found in this book that should be required reading for everyone.
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