Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
A consistently declining rate in the production of local foodstuffs has been noted in recent years in many third-world countries. One of the measures taken by the governments concerned in attempting to stop this alarming trend, has been the accelerated development of modern agricultural practices based on irrigation and the use of fertilizers.
Unfortunately, the environmental aspects have, too often, been overlooked in the development of modern irrigation programmes during the second half of the present century. This has, seemingly inevitably, resulted in a severe spread of water-borne diseases among people living in the areas that were so developed.