Crop Irrigation uses an area 's water resources to grow the particular commodity this has obvious consequences depending on the method they choose. Degradation of irrigated land includes salinization, alkalization, water logging, and soil acidification. Ecological degradation occurs as farmers will often pull from accessible sources of water like lakes, rivers, and streams. This will reduce the natural quantity of water systems or deprive the areas downstream. Finally, groundwater depletion leads to dry aquifers, saline intrusion, and reduced base flow (Dougherty & Hall, …show more content…
Some irrigation projects utilize rivers and streams as a water source. There are many instances of rivers being diverted to support irrigation schemes. Diverting a water source will have an effect in some form like reduced river flow. Stunting a river may result in wetlands drying up or salt water incursion where the river meets the sea. For example, irrigation canals diverted so much water from the fourth largest sea in the world that it nearly disappeared. Meanwhile, another solution is to build weirs and dams which are built to collect significant amounts of freshwater. Dams are beneficial for power and drinking water as well as irrigation, but it also creates environmental problems downstream by disrupting the natural flow of rivers. As water is taken from these sources, the quantity diminishes further downstream. Some adverse effects include pollutant dilution, altering wetland habitats, saline intrusion, waterborne diseases, insufficient flow, and water quality reduction (Dougherty & Hall,