The Desert Doesn't Bloom Here Anymore
In rich and poor countries alike, once-productive farms are turning to desert because of mismanagement of water resources. NOVA examines the causes and cures of desertification.
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00:00In Africa, the desert is advancing, turning once fertile farmland into dust and forcing
00:13many to abandon their homes. But they're fighting back with their bare hands. In the
00:21western United States, the desert blooms thanks to large-scale irrigation, but the fields
00:27may not be farmland much longer. Is the technology that transformed the desert also poisoning
00:34the land? The desert doesn't bloom here anymore, tonight on NOVA.
00:48Major funding for NOVA is provided by this station and other public television stations
00:52nationwide. Additional funding was provided by the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies,
00:59supplying health care products worldwide. And by Allied Signal, a technology leader
01:06in aerospace, electronics, automotive products, and engineered materials.
01:22NOVA is a production of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of
01:53At first glance, these African hippos seem to be thriving in a tropical paradise. But
01:59their paradise will soon be lost. Even though they're currently protected by guards and
02:06laws and a game preserve, in the end, the guards and laws will be powerless to save
02:11them. The hippos live in a stream-fed lagoon in West Africa, but the lagoon is shrinking,
02:21and without it, the hippos won't be able to survive. For 20 years, the climate here
02:29has been getting drier, but climate is only part of the problem. Outside the park, the
02:35forest is being cut down by the local people. Now unprotected by forest cover, the streams
02:43that feed the lagoon are drying up, and the desert advances, threatening not only the
02:47lagoon, but the entire area. This process, called desertification, is a growing problem
02:56in the world's arid regions. Millions of people live in these dry lands, and desertification
03:02directly threatens their survival. One crisis area is in Africa. Here, the Sahara Desert
03:11is moving south into the region called the Sahel. For thousands of years, nomads have
03:16herded their cattle across the Sahel, seeking out pasture wherever rain has fallen. Nomadic
03:25herding is an efficient way to take advantage of the area's sparse productivity, but it
03:30depends on keeping the population of cattle and people at a level the land can sustain.
03:36But now this delicate balance has been disturbed, and so the dunes advance, swallowing up villages
03:42and agricultural land, indifferent to human efforts to survive at the desert's edge.
03:53The damage is especially evident in Burkina Faso, formerly the French colony of Upper
03:57Volta, one of the poorest countries in the world. The desert is advancing here because
04:07too many cattle and goats have destroyed first the grass and then the trees. Unprotected
04:16by vegetation, the soil dries out. The fine organic material called humus blows away,
04:23and when the rain does fall, a crust forms. The next rain then flows across the earth's
04:28surface instead of sinking into the soil. With their roots unable to draw moisture,
04:37the ancient baobab trees die. The cattle finally die, not of thirst, but of starvation.
04:49Here in Burkina Faso, drought has ruled since 1968. Long cycles of drought have been occurring
04:57in this part of Africa for centuries. The nomads recall a history of droughts when their
05:06precious cattle died, and worse droughts when people died. In the current drought, the Deula
05:12people have lost their cattle, all their wealth, to starvation and disease. They can usually
05:19grow a little grain. This year, that's all they have to live on. The village spokesman
05:31is Bediri Abedina. The season was not very good here. Some of us have only harvested
05:39enough to keep us alive for three months, some only enough for two. Most of the men
05:46have had to go to the towns to try to find something for their families to eat.
05:53As the desert advances, the nomads have been forced to move south, seeking pasture for
05:58their cattle far beyond their traditional territory. Even the farmers living further
06:05south must now migrate to areas where there is more rain, where they can clear forested
06:10land and plant more crops. It's these farmers who also threaten the hippos and their lagoon.
06:22So the hippos and the forest are victims of the displaced people who, by trying to escape
06:27the advancing desert, are bringing the desert with them. The desert does not advance on
06:36a broad front. It breaks out in a rash of clearings. These are new villages where farmers
06:43have settled and cut the forest for fields. Fifteen years ago, it was unbroken savanna.
06:49Now the land is deteriorating rapidly. The new settlers are the Masi people. Compared
06:58to the region they've left, the land here seems good. The Masi are well known for their
07:09resourcefulness and at first they do get good crops. This year, a new granary has been built
07:22for the harvest of beans, a crop which is used to make a staple food of bean porridge.
07:34But within ten years, the Masi's new farmland will be useless. To grow the beans, the forest
07:42was cut down and burned. The ancient African soils have little fertility and the ashes
07:48of the trees provide nutrients for the farmers' crops. But the nutrients are quickly used
07:53up and future harvests will steadily decline. Here, the land has only recently been cleared,
08:02but already the crop of millet is very poor. In order to restore the field's fertility
08:07in this slash-and-burn agricultural system, the land must be left to lie fallow for eight
08:13years after three years of growing crops. The fallow period allows new growth and the
08:19buildup of organic materials in the soil so it can be farmed again. But now, with so many
08:26people in the area, the land is farmed every season and there is little forest left to clear
08:31for growing food or for the fuel needed to cook it. Throughout the region, forests are being
08:42depleted faster than they can grow. Soon, the only way for the Masi to maintain food
08:49production will be to move on and clear a new area, if they can find one. The local
08:59people are the Bobo. Life in this Bobo village of Bacorniso had been prosperous for hundreds
09:05of years, but now the Bobo are outnumbered ten to one by the Masi immigrants, who have
09:12all arrived in the last fifteen years. There's not enough land or water to go around. Only
09:28one generation ago, forests surrounded this ancient village. Men had to carry spears for
09:34protection against lions. Now, with no forest left, the headmen are worried about the land's
09:39fertility. Their spokesman is Paul-Michel Travere.
09:44Before, the soil was better. Now, it's too light. You must put fertilizer on it. Before,
09:54it was richer. Everything we planted would grow. It was rich because it held the moisture.
10:00Now, if we cultivate without fertilizer, it's not rich enough. There's the sun everywhere
10:06and it's dry. By African standards, Bacorniso is well off. The men can afford bicycles.
10:18Their prosperity comes from a cash crop, cotton. For twenty years, it has been grown in the
10:27area, promoted by a French company that supplies modern seed and fertilizer. The money the
10:35Bobo receive for their work puts some cash into the local economy. Before, the Bobo grew
10:46their food in the traditional way, by alternating growing years with long fallow periods. But
10:53now, to get money from the cotton, they must use the same land continuously. The French
11:00fertilizer makes it possible for the Bobo to practice a system of crop rotation.
11:11After one year of growing cotton, the same land is planted with sorghum, a grain crop.
11:17This yields a good harvest because it uses the remains of the fertilizer. The third year,
11:22the land is planted with maize. In the next year, they grow cotton again so that the company
11:28will provide still more fertilizer and the cycle can repeat. The system will work as
11:36long as the trading company provides the fertilizer. If the shipments were to stop, the only way
11:42the Bobo villagers could replenish the soil would be to let the fields lie fallow. But
11:48the land outside the village is already being used to its limits, farmed by the mossy settlers.
11:54Still for food, the Bobo have become completely dependent on the French company's fertilizer,
11:59and therefore on the world market for cotton. Already the shortage of land is close to causing
12:06tribal conflict. The mossy have overwhelmed us and we are fed up with them. We have run
12:15out of grain and we no longer have any arable land. They behave as if they were superior
12:20to us, and that's not good. The elders don't like that. We, the children of this land,
12:28when we are looking for land to till, we don't find any. There is no more land to give to
12:33anyone. Even up in the hills now, there are fields everywhere. It would have been better
12:39if we could get one together. But the mossy try to act superior. They no longer show any
12:44respect to the inhabitants of this village. This is the source of the conflict.
12:51The Bobo worry that their land will become like the mossy lands in the north, in the
12:59Yetenga region, where drought and deforestation have left little but stones and inedible shrubs.
13:10Only a few tree trunks dot the barren landscape. The mossy villages have stood on the same
13:18sites for generations, but the land has turned against them. The villages are now half deserted.
13:27Most of the men have left to find work or grow food in the south or by the coast. Only
13:38women and children remain. Every day they grind a little more of the meager harvest.
13:52It's not surprising that the young people are leaving the villages, but at least for
13:56now this village will not be abandoned. With their menfolk away, the women of Bassi have
14:17decided not to submit to the drought and the desert. They are fighting it with their bare
14:22hands. The temperature here usually exceeds 100 degrees and less than 20 inches of rain
14:38fall each year. Yet when the rains do come, they are fierce and wash away the soil, even
14:44on this apparently level land. From an Oxfam project, the women learned that they could
14:50improve their crops without fertilizer or machinery simply by building lines of stones,
14:56which help to keep the soil and the water in place. The technique is known as rainwater
15:03harvesting. A line of stones must be built along the level contour of the land. To find
15:28it, a plastic tube filled with water is strung between two poles. The tube is maneuvered
15:33until the water levels are equal at each end. Then the contour can be marked and the stones
15:42placed along it. It's difficult to believe that anything could grow on this crusted soil,
16:02but the method works. When the rain falls, it runs downhill until it meets a line of stones.
16:10This slows the flow of water and both soil and vegetable matter collect. The water also
16:16sinks through the crust into the ground and plants can begin to grow along the lines of
16:21stones. Here a crop of millet has already been harvested just a year after the wall was built.
16:28But will the harvest improve enough to stop the mossy from migrating south?
16:35We don't want to go away from here because we don't understand the way of life of the people
16:46in the south. From what we know, it's better here even if it is difficult. That's why we are
16:53struggling. But with God's help and the help of our leaders, we'll get something to put in our
16:59mound. Here there is starvation and thirst. We have no food, we have no water. This is
17:12why we count on God and we formed an association to do the work. In other mossy villages, the wells
17:22are drying up, another symptom of desertification. But once again, the villagers are fighting back.
17:29They are enlarging a dam that traps the rainwater that runs off a small hill. Last year the dam held
17:41water for three months, so now it is being made wider and higher to hold even more. This water
17:47sinks into the ground and helps raise the water table. The soil which collected on the upstream
18:17side of the dam is being carried in bowls to reinforce the lower side.
18:47It's an heroic effort on the part of the villagers,
19:06but seen in the context of the devastated landscape, it seems insignificant.
19:11Yet efforts like these can slow the desert's advance. Such simple techniques make full use
19:25of the little rain that falls, and rain is the only source of water in this arid land.
19:41This year there is more water in the wells. Already the villagers have made a difference,
19:52but they also know that there is more to be done. Welcome to the foreigners. You have seen our work.
20:05The problem is that the soil is dry. If you treat the ground, it becomes soft and fertile,
20:12and whatever you do, the soil can be waked. Now we see there's grass growing everywhere.
20:17The soil has become soft, so we can have food. This is why we are working hard,
20:24and we ask you to help us to learn so that we can make more progress. I mean that you
20:31should help us so that we can get on faster. We must not stop. We must move ahead.
20:36But recovery will depend on more than the labor of the villagers. Economics also plays a crucial role.
20:50In the markets, the price of grain can vary widely. When grain is plentiful, merchants buy
21:02it up at a low price. But when harvests fail, the price of grain rises steeply,
21:08and few people can buy enough grain to feed their families. Some can only afford bitter wild berries,
21:17and some have no money at all. There may be grain available, but the merchants who control the
21:26market hold it back to keep prices high. To counteract this problem, the government has
21:32started programs to help villages like Sofoquel. Here, 90% of the cattle have died of hunger. This
21:40disaster means the villagers have lost all their capital and have had to borrow money to live.
21:45But they have had a harvest, the first for three years, and a new grain storehouse has
21:53been built by the government. The farmers need to sell their grain to pay off their debts,
21:58and now there is an alternative to the market. A local committee has been given a loan to
22:04establish a grain bank with the help of an advisor who lives in the village. Just after
22:11harvest, a farmer will usually get a low price for his grain because everyone wants to sell.
22:16But this village bank pays a set price for the crop. Later in the year, the price in the market
22:25will rise steeply as food runs short. But at the grain bank, families will be able to buy
22:31back grain for only 10% more than their original selling price. In the market,
22:37they would have to pay two or three times as much. In 1984,
22:46it was only the grain bank that saved the village from being abandoned.
22:49Because of this system, the villagers can count on being able to buy and sell grain
23:00at prices more favorable than they encounter at the marketplace. The farmers have more money
23:06to pay their debts, and the village moves a little further away from poverty. In 1985,
23:17the summer rains, though no more than the year before, were well distributed. Suddenly,
23:23much of the Sahel was covered in a growth of grass that had not been seen for years.
23:27It had come too late for the cattle at Sofakel. The carcasses of the cows that
23:37died of hunger lie surrounded by the pasture they had so desperately needed.
23:41The town of Gorom-Gorom is the center of trade for the region, and here a meeting
23:52of the heads of village councils has been called to discuss what can be done.
23:55The group represents several different nomadic tribes who are the area's main cattle herders.
24:04These men are well aware that the issue is not simply one of poor rainfall,
24:09but that too many cattle have contributed to destroying the land. They must now try
24:18to persuade their people to have smaller but higher quality herds. In theory,
24:23these would give them the same income but eat less pasture, and so put less stress on the land.
24:29Their president is Seydou Madien.
24:33Now I think we need to go for quality and not quantity, and for this I believe that
24:43there have to be guaranteed markets to absorb the production. If there is no guaranteed market,
24:49it's too risky to invest in a small improved herd, as the animals would be very expensive.
24:56But still I believe that it is essential all the same and necessary to do this,
25:02because where quantity is concerned, things cannot go on as they were. We must concentrate on quality.
25:11We've got to build up herds in some areas because they've got absolutely nothing left.
25:17There again I think that it is completely beyond the capacity of the herdsmen themselves,
25:23so it's a political question.
25:26But the nomadic people are not well represented in the government and can expect little support.
25:35This is the main road to the capital Ouagadougou. The area is so remote that the herdsmen must
25:43drive their cattle 200 miles to be sold. They need to know that they will get a good price for
25:48their animals before they will accept the idea of having smaller herds. But there is no guaranteed
25:54market at the end of the road, and that's not their only obstacle. Even the existing market is
26:00being destroyed by European cattle. The common market is shipping cut price surplus beef to the
26:05ports of the Ivory Coast.
26:13However you look at it, this has been our death blow. For example, when we send cattle to Ouaga
26:19for the Ivory Coast, they tell us that the price on delivery at the coast is between 900 and 1000 francs.
26:27But we are told that the meat from Europe sells between 400 and 450, and it's better quality too.
26:35So the people of the Ivory Coast prefer to buy the meat which comes from Europe because it's
26:40better quality and cheaper. I think that's quite understandable for them. They are right.
26:47So it's the meat imported from Europe that has ruined the local markets as well as the coastal market.
26:57In the local markets, the cattle are bought and sold among the nomads, merchants, and speculators
27:02from the cities. At the height of the drought, when the nomads were selling their cattle to buy food,
27:07the market was glutted. A cow in poor condition would sell for only $10.
27:13But now that times are better, the merchants are selling fat cattle to the speculators at $200 a head.
27:24For the merchants, business is good. But for the ordinary nomadic herdsmen, the higher prices are
27:31disastrous. With their cattle dead in the drought, they have no capital and can't afford to restock
27:37their herds at all. And development projects intended to help the herders have not met with
27:43much success. In 1965, a model ranch was set up at Marcoy. High quality Azuac cattle were brought in
27:54with the aim of improving the bloodlines of the indigenous herds. But they were never adopted by
27:59the local herdsmen. The cattle station is now deserted. The U.S. government spent more than a
28:10million dollars here over five years. It was handed over to the local government, but the files and
28:16wall charts stopped in the early 70s when the money ran out. The ranch was planned on a large scale,
28:24more appropriate to the American West than to the Sahel. The emphasis was on technological
28:30solutions to the region's problems, but the running costs were far too high for Burkina Faso to afford,
28:36and the project was abandoned. In the last decade, over $10 billion has been spent on aid
28:46throughout the Sahel, with little effect. The desert still advances, people are displaced,
28:57and the cycle of desertification continues, not just in Burkina Faso, but throughout the Sahel.
29:08The problems caused by trying to survive in the desert are not unique to Burkina Faso
29:13or to other developing nations. Two-thirds of the countries of the world must grow food
29:18in arid lands, and even where money and technology are readily available, difficult issues arise.
29:26In the western United States, the desert blooms, thanks to large-scale irrigation.
29:32But here, it's the very water projects designed to transform desert into farmland
29:36that may now bring a better harvest.
29:42This irrigated land is in trouble because of salt concentration,
29:46water logging, and the buildup of poisons in the land.
29:54The Colorado River is one of the most developed water resources in the world,
29:58and its development has helped make the U.S. self-sufficient in food.
30:07Many of the great canyons of Utah and Arizona have been made into huge reservoirs
30:12so that food can be grown in the desert.
30:16There are now nine major dams on the Colorado.
30:20The water they hold irrigates two-and-a-half million acres of farmland.
30:29The river got its name because its water is full of sediment.
30:32Colorado means red-colored in Spanish.
30:35But like all rivers, the Colorado also carries salt.
30:39As rain runs off the land into the river, it washes out salts.
30:47Normally, the river carries these into the sea.
30:53But now, most of the Colorado River is used for irrigation,
30:57and instead of flowing to the sea, the water and the salt end up on the land.
31:03As in the Welton Mohawk Valley near Yuma, Arizona.
31:08Here in 1957, the federal government funded a new canal from the Colorado River.
31:14It increased the irrigated acreage by a factor of 10.
31:19In this area, temperatures can reach 120 degrees.
31:23Farming in this harsh environment requires staggering amounts of water,
31:27as much as 10 feet per acre each year.
31:30And all of this water contains salt.
31:33Ironically, the same irrigation that brings water to the land also brings its ruin.
31:40It happens like this.
31:44When water is used for irrigation, it always contains some salts.
31:49Some of the water evaporates from the surface, leaving behind a crust of salt.
31:54The rest sinks into the earth, adding to the groundwater, which slowly becomes more salty.
32:00As the plant takes up water, salt also concentrates around the roots,
32:04and the soil eventually becomes salty enough to damage the plant.
32:11To cure the salt buildup, the farmers can flood the land with a lot of water,
32:15which washes the salt out of the soil and into the groundwater.
32:19But this makes the salty groundwater rise.
32:22If it comes within reach of the roots, the plant will die.
32:29The solution is to install underground drains.
32:32These lower the groundwater level.
32:35The salt can then be flushed out of the soil continuously, and the crops will flourish.
32:44Usually, the drainage water is pumped out of the ground and into open drains.
32:51The Wilton Mohawk drain was built by the federal government to rescue irrigation in the valley.
33:00It did solve the salt problem for the local farmers,
33:03but the drainage water had to go somewhere.
33:06So it was poured back into the Colorado River here, just above the Mexican border.
33:11But the river then became too salty to be used for irrigation in Mexico.
33:16Not surprisingly, the Mexican government protested.
33:22A huge desalinization plant is now under construction at Yuma to reduce the river's salinity.
33:29This will reduce the river's salt content.
33:32It will cost over $200 million by the time it's completed in 1989,
33:37with running costs estimated at $20 million a year.
33:41Then fresh water will flow along this channel back to the Colorado.
33:52It would have been less expensive for the government to buy up the 60,000 acres of farmland
33:57and take it out of production.
34:00In fact, 10% was bought, and the lemon trees were cut down.
34:06But in order to keep the farmers in business, the government, in effect,
34:10continues to subsidize the cost of farming in the desert.
34:14The irrigation and drainage systems are supplied at a fraction of their real cost.
34:18But the government also encourages and subsidizes water conservation.
34:27The U.S. Soil Conservation Service helps to pay for projects that would reduce the
34:31amount of water used in farming so that there will be less drainage water to treat.
34:37One method is to make the fields very flat by laser leveling.
34:41A field that is level is irrigated more evenly and so needs less water.
34:48The leveling is done by setting up a rotating laser in the middle of a field.
34:54Two tractors pull scrapers over the ground.
34:57As the laser strikes a sensor, it automatically raises or lowers the scraper to make the field level.
35:10Water conservation measures in the valley will cost about $20 million to complete.
35:15The government pays three quarters of the cost.
35:21One of the large family farms is run by Rocky Curtis.
35:25Right now we're kind of spoiled with our water situation because our water is fairly cheap at
35:30$40 an acre and we have our irrigation system, we just flood heavily and then cut it off.
35:36But in the future, 10 years from now, we can see where the situation could be that we could be
35:42paying 10 times as much, 20 times as much, who knows.
35:45We got other cities taking a lot of our water and are going to be taking more of our water.
35:51And we're just kind of planning for the future here.
35:55And with the government paying for 75 percent of these projects,
36:00we really can't afford not to put them in.
36:04Rocky Curtis, with government help, is also installing an efficient drip irrigation system
36:08into his lemon groves.
36:11Drip irrigation pipes water directly to the roots of the trees.
36:15It halves the amount of water used by other irrigation methods.
36:20But startup costs are high and the system must be filtered so that drip does not block up the
36:27water outlets.
36:30Once the system is installed, the farm will use less water.
36:35But large-scale irrigation will still be an expensive way to grow food.
36:44Despite the government subsidies, and even though many farmers use cheap Mexican labor,
36:50it is still difficult for American lemons like these to compete on the world market.
36:58Low world prices have made it a bad time for American farmers.
37:02Many are not making back their costs.
37:06It's getting really tough.
37:07You know, we're growing cotton out here, wheat, and alfalfa, and some of these crops,
37:13and we're starving to death.
37:14You know, we'll grow a crop and spend $300, $400 an acre on growing it and
37:19getting $200 to $300 back on our net returns.
37:23It's just, it's not making it.
37:25And then when the city's encroaching on us and, you know, we're farming on $4,000 an acre ground,
37:32and next thing you know, we've got a big department store wants to go up and they're
37:36willing to pay $20,000 an acre.
37:38We can't afford not to sell it to them.
37:42And that's what's happening in Arizona.
37:44Urbanization is rapidly changing the landscape,
37:48especially in the central part of the state.
37:51Farmers and developers are competing for land,
37:54and both groups want access to the limited water supply.
37:58While most of the available water is still used for agriculture, many farmers are selling out.
38:04Housing developments are replacing lemon groves.
38:08As long as there are no more than eight houses per acre,
38:11they use less water than the lemons did.
38:13Even so, Arizona's natural reservoirs of groundwater
38:16are being emptied far faster than they can be replenished.
38:25So a new water project is underway, tapping the Colorado River once again.
38:35In November 1985, the first leg of a huge new canal
38:38known as the Central Arizona Project was opened.
38:44It transports water hundreds of miles from the Colorado River
38:48to the farms and population centers in the middle of Arizona.
38:52Only partially completed, it has cost one and a half billion dollars.
38:58The canal's first stop is Phoenix, one of the fastest growing cities in the southwest,
39:03with one and a half million inhabitants.
39:06Each of them uses about 250 gallons of water a day.
39:10As urban sprawl takes more and more farmland out of production,
39:14the federal funds initially intended to make the desert bloom
39:17are subsidizing swimming pools and housing developments instead.
39:22Since the canal's arrival, Phoenix draws less of its municipal water
39:26from irreplaceable underground reservoirs.
39:28But the water provided by the new canal can only partially offset the region's water overdraft.
39:39Even so, the dwindling resource is still consumed as if it will last forever.
39:51Modern technology may promise to conquer the desert,
39:54but Phoenix got its name because the city arose from the ruins of an Indian settlement
39:59which had also depended on canals and irrigation.
40:05The walls of Pueblo Grande were built by the Hohokam Indians,
40:08who abandoned their village about 500 years ago.
40:16Beneath the flight path of Sky Harbor Airport lie the last remnants of the Hohokam canals,
40:21great feats of engineering for their day.
40:24It is now thought that the Indians were starved out
40:27because their irrigated fields slowly accumulated salt until their crops wouldn't grow.
40:39Few people visit the ruins, but the ghosts of the Hohokam might tell them
40:44that most irrigation systems, sooner or later, run into trouble.
40:51In areas irrigated by the Colorado, salinity and scarcity of water have become serious problems.
40:58And around the world, irrigation has proved to be a mixed blessing.
41:02Nearly four million acres of farmland are lost to salinity.
41:06Four million acres of farmland are lost to salinization each year,
41:10and it is estimated that almost half the world's irrigated land
41:13has been degraded by salinization and water logging.
41:19In California, a new and potentially even more serious threat to agriculture
41:24has appeared in just the last few years.
41:28It, too, is a byproduct of irrigation.
41:30The Sacramento River provides most of the water to feed an incredibly complex system of canals
41:35to irrigate the huge Central Valley.
41:38The southern half, known as the San Joaquin Valley,
41:41was previously desert or swampland fed by seasonal rivers from the mountains.
41:48Although it's still bounded by desert, this huge valley of nearly five million acres
41:53is now one of the most important agricultural areas in the world.
41:56California produces about 25% of all our fruits and vegetables.
42:01The farmers pay only a tenth of the real cost of the water.
42:07This irrigation canal was opened in 1972.
42:10It brings water not to family farms, but to giant agricultural businesses.
42:15They grow crops like cotton with this subsidized water, along with vegetables and fruits.
42:20Yet only a third of the fields are adequately drained.
42:24Already, salinization and water logging are causing production to drop by 10% a year.
42:31The Sacramento River has a strong current,
42:34and so can carry irrigation drainage water down into San Francisco Bay.
42:39But the San Joaquin River comes from a much drier area,
42:43and is not as dry as the San Joaquin River.
42:45But the San Joaquin River comes from a much drier area,
42:49and is too shallow and level to cope with the drainage of the huge area irrigated by the new canals.
42:56So a new drain called the San Luis drain was planned to empty into San Francisco Bay.
43:02But before it could be completed, the government money ran out.
43:06Only a third of the drain was built.
43:08It had already cost about three million dollars.
43:14The San Luis drain ended abruptly at an area of marshland called Casterson,
43:19which had been declared a wildlife refuge.
43:30In 1981, the first water was pumped into the San Luis River.
43:34In 1981, the first water arrived from irrigation drains.
43:40With nowhere else to go, the drain water was diverted into the Casterson marshes.
43:45In 1983, the Bureau of Reclamation asked for additional funding
43:49to complete the San Luis drain to San Francisco Bay.
43:54But first, by law, an environmental impact study was undertaken
43:58to see if the drain water would cause any ecological damage to the bay.
44:04They began with the Casterson marsh.
44:08The drain water had been flowing into the marshland for only two years,
44:12but already it was beginning to look very different.
44:21Millions of birds migrate through California along the Pacific Flyway.
44:25The marsh was a popular stopping place.
44:28Every year, 10,000 coots would winter here.
44:34In the spring, it was an important nesting area used by 200 species of birds.
44:45But the reserve manager reported that the eggs didn't seem to be hatching.
44:55Birds like the killdeer and the American avocet were becoming scarcer.
45:04The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife
45:16began a survey of nests of all the species that could be found.
45:28The results were alarming.
45:30Two-thirds of the coots' and grebes' nests contained eggs with dead or deformed embryos in them.
45:38This is a blackneck stilt's nest.
45:51Over 20 percent of their nests contained the same hideous evidence.
45:56A blackneck stilt with deformed bill and wings and no legs.
46:09Another. Again, a deformed bill and a brain outside its skull.
46:16Chemical analysis showed that their tissues contained abnormally high levels of the element
46:20selenium.
46:27In 1984, all the grebes disappeared from the reserve.
46:31In 1985, none of the stilts or avocets born survived beyond two weeks.
46:37Enough selenium had been concentrated in the marshes for them to be classified as a toxic dump.
46:51The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife
46:57Most of the fish and coots were dead.
47:00Now the rangers, whose job is to protect the wildlife, had a new task.
47:21Wearing masks to prevent them from breathing selenium dust,
47:24they set about scaring birds away from their sanctuary.
47:45In 1986, this program cost half a million dollars.
47:49But though confused, the birds still tried to nest.
48:11The selenium that pollutes the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge comes from the San Luis Drain.
48:19This biological nightmare began when desert soils,
48:24which contain naturally occurring selenium, were irrigated for the first time.
48:33The hills of the coast range, which border the San Joaquin Valley,
48:37were formed from rocks that contain sea sediments, the source of selenium.
48:41The area gets very little rainfall.
48:44So as the hills eroded over thousands of years,
48:47the soluble selenium in their rocks was washed down
48:50only as far as the floor of the valley and not down the river.
48:54But when the valley was irrigated, the selenium which had concentrated in the soil
48:59started to wash out into the San Luis Drain and into the Kesterson Marsh.
49:03As a consequence of this irrigation, a designated wildlife refuge has been polluted with selenium
49:10in violation of a migratory bird treaty.
49:12A private lawsuit won by a neighboring farmer forced the Department of the Interior
49:18to take measures to halt the flow of contaminated drain water into the marsh.
49:22There was only one sure way to do this.
49:24Selenium was used to irrigate the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge.
49:29But the farmers continued to irrigate.
49:31So in March 1986, the government began to dig up the field drains.
49:35A section of each horizontal pipe was removed and the ends blocked off.
49:39Without these drains, the water table will, in a few years,
49:43rise and waterlogged the Kesterson Marsh.
49:47The Kesterson Marsh is the largest marsh in the United States.
49:51The Kesterson Marsh is the largest marsh in the United States.
49:55The water table will, in a few years, rise and waterlog the plants.
50:03So agriculture in the area will pay a price for the selenium pollution.
50:07Over a million acres will go out of production in the San Joaquin Valley if it is not drained by 1990.
50:15And there is now no chance that the San Luis Drain will be completed.
50:19It is likely that much of this irrigated land will become desert again.
50:25Its status as farmland was only temporary.
50:35For the Kesterson Wildlife Reserve, there is no future.
50:39The current proposal is to bulldoze the marsh into a small containment area and seal it off forever.
50:49In December 1985, the U.S. government confirmed that nine other areas had dangerous levels of selenium.
50:57All of them receive irrigation drainage water.
51:05An intensive scientific investigation is now underway to determine the seriousness of the problem.
51:11Ironically, selenium is an element which plants and animals need in trace quantities for healthy growth.
51:18But too much is toxic, and very little is known about the way selenium is taken up.
51:25The scientists take core samples to map where selenium occurs in soil, because the rocks which contain it are widespread.
51:36Until the studies are complete, there will be no way of knowing to what extent irrigation is poisoning the land.
51:44Turning large areas of desert into farmland once seemed the perfect solution to the world's ever-increasing demand for food.
51:52But the complex technology required for this transformation has brought with it a series of equally complex problems.
52:00Serious issues remain, both in terms of cost and of the impact on the environment.
52:06Water development is the special subject of environmental writer Bill Karl.
52:11We have, after all, created an immense public investment in the creation of an agricultural industry
52:19in an area where God clearly never intended crops to be grown or large numbers of people to live.
52:25These are areas that, in their natural condition, are arid wastelands or malarial bogs.
52:31The profitability of those agricultural operations depend absolutely upon heavily subsidized water deliveries.
52:39That's what makes water issues kind of the ultimate politics in the western United States,
52:45is that they are community decisions about the kind of society we want to be in the future.
52:51Until now, we've always made the decision that we're going to be in the middle of the ocean,
52:58Until now, we've always made the decision that the maintenance of a large agricultural system
53:06is a luxury that we can afford and is a social good that we wish to preserve.
53:11The problem is that we're facing the natural limitations of the environment that we've chosen to place that agricultural community in,
53:21and the costs of maintenance continually get higher and higher.
53:28For the time being, the desert sands will continue to be transformed into fields and cities.
53:34The Central Arizona Project is pressing towards completion,
53:38extending the Colorado River even further into the desert.
53:42But it may be one of the last of the nation's huge water projects.
53:47Large-scale irrigation, once unquestioned as an inspiring and efficient way to grow food in the desert,
53:53is coming under increasing scrutiny.
53:58It may prove to be only a temporary triumph over nature.
54:05Desert agriculture everywhere requires endless ingenuity and constant effort.
54:11By their actions, people can resist the desert, and even make the desert bloom.
54:17But should the people, or the technology, fail,
54:21what will be left to do?
54:26By their actions, people can resist the desert, and even make the desert bloom.
54:32But should the people, or the technology, falter in the struggle,
54:36the desert will prevail.
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