Turn deserts green, feed hungry people and combat climate change!

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Reservoir_Dog said:
Civilizations that grow up alongside flood plains anticipated and needed the yearly cycle of flood, silt deposit, flood recession, planting, harvesting and flood (which also destroys weeds). This was the fertile crescent and the Nile valley before the big dam. You can irrigate more surface area with impounded water from a massive dam or bring water to urban areas, but you disrupt the flow of silt and amount of water coming down from the watershed and that causes more problems upstream and in the delta estuaries.
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You’re right about the delta. Generally speaking, they need that inflow of silt and shrink up in time without it.
 
There is a poster somewhere around here who argues that siltation is NOT normal and that it is caused by the agriculture industry. And yet EVERY flowing stream, even tiny spring fed rivulets, carry silt and create deltas.

With respect to dams failing because of silt buildups that cause loss of water storage capacity … I guess no one has heard of dredging. You get a hydraulic dredge or a dragline and clean out the silt and use it for other purposes.

Despite all the complaints there are rivers that have a LOT of water and a LOT of the water ends up in the ocean because the government agencies that control the river will not allow it to be pumped out for irrigation without their consent and they don’t give their consent.
 
Some places have a surplus of water and some other places have a shortage of water. Sometimes it is relatively easy to capture the water and relocate it; sometimes it takes some effort.

Some places have water close by but it requires drilling or digging wells to get the water to where people need it.

There is nothing inherently evil or bad in transporting the water to where it can be used by people instead of having it run into the ocean or having it flood out the local population.

What you have to do is “do the numbers”. How much water can you move and what will it cost and how long will it take to pay back the investment and do the local people agree that it’s what they will support.
 
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