Introduction

In the western United States, Federal and State governments, working with local interests, have spent billions of dollars ($ US) constructing water-related infrastructure (with similar activities occurring worldwide). In many cases, when water infrastructure was constructed, the dynamics of modifying the natural behavior of river systems and the challenge of sustaining water resources, in an environment of increasing demands on water, was not always foreseen or understood. Thus there is a continual need to fine tune project operations. This fine tuning is particularly critical given the current world food situation.

According to Norma Postel (1999, p. 6) of Worldwatch: "Water scarcity is now the single biggest threat to global food production. Just two decades ago, serious water problems were confined to manageable pockets of the world. Today, however, they exist on every continent and are spreading rapidly. More than a billion people now live in countries or regions where there is insufficient water to meet modest food and material needs per person. In many of these areas, populations are expected to expand greatly over the next few decades, raising the prospect of greatly increased food-import needs. But the poverty levels raise doubts about the ability of these nations to import enough grain to fill their emerging food gaps. Even so, global food models to date largely ignore water constraints, and as a result they present an overly optimistic picture of future food availability."

Whether or not you agree with these dire predictions, there is universal agreement that there is a need to increase food production with less water. While the solutions that Ms. Postel espouses in Pillar of Sand are decidedly low tech, the authors strongly believe that there is a role for higher tech innovations.